Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. You know, to listen to the tone of the Conservative Party in this election, you could come to the conclusion that, in some way, we are on the cusp of Britain’s finest hour. When you look at actually what’s happening to this country, what you see, actually, is a deeply divided United Kingdom. It’s not our finest hour, it could be the final hour, because of the economic divide, which is the most poisonous legacy of this Conservative Government.

Let’s look at the facts: in Yorkshire, Humberside, Northern Ireland, Wales, the west midlands and the north-west of England, workers are actually producing less now per hour, in the latest year for which figures are available, than they did in 2007. Where’s the economic progress there? Where’s the economic fairness for those nations and regions across the UK? Regional inequality in the UK is higher now than ever—higher now than ever, since records began, and it’s worsened in every year since 2010.

We measure it through the Gini co-efficient for regional inequality. It was fairly stable until the economic crisis. Prior to that crash, it was at 0.106. For the last year for which we have figures, published in 2016, it’s now at 0.126. That is unprecedented. That’s a 200 per cent increase in the extent of economic inequality between the nations and regions of this United Kingdom in less than a decade. You should be hanging your heads in shame. And let’s not forget as well that behind these statistics, there is a very human story. Come with me to some of the towns of the northern Valleys and see on the very faces of the people there the intergenerational hopelessness that you have cast them into. [Interruption.] I’ll certainly take an intervention.