We’re in Boris Johnson having-our-cake-and-eating-it territory there, I’m afraid, aren’t we? The White Paper, actually, is clear and honest about this. If you want the benefits, then there are certain things that flow from that, and unfortunately, that isn’t reflected in the rather muddy thinking from the UK Labour Party.

But I want to talk about Plaid Cymru’s ideas and our post-Brexit plan, and I seek support across the Chamber for how we’re going to defend the Welsh economy, given the fact that we’re probably going to get poor leadership, going forward, whoever wins down in the Westminster political class. We’ve set out a number of ideas here. We’ve talked, I think, in the last debate, about the danger of cheap imports to our agricultural industry: equal dangers, of course, that the Member will know in terms of our steel industry—probably not so much in the trade agreement, but in trade policy. So, how is the UK Government going to use its defensive measures to protect against things like cheap Chinese steel or Korean steel et cetera? And how are we going to guard against the rise of protectionism overall, which also could cause significant damage to the interests of the Welsh steel industry? That’s why we think that, actually, there should be a seat at the table for the Welsh Government and, indeed, for all the devolved legislatures, because the economic interests of the different nations of the UK are qualitatively different because of the different economic composition.

As well as risks, there are opportunities—new opportunities, legal and economic—that will come as a result of leaving the European Union, and we’re clear about that. For instance, the ability to set regional rates of VAT, which could be of interest to us. Because of the latent potential of our tourism industry, we could do what many countries do and have a lower VAT rate for restaurants or hotel accommodation. We could follow the Holtham commission idea of having a discounted regional variable corporation tax rate for those parts of the UK, like Wales, that have lower income per capita. That could be a very effective arm of regional policy. That’s not actually a race to the bottom; that’s a way, actually, to lift those already at the bottom so that they can actually improve the level of their economy. We could actually devolve powers over procurement. Of course, we were removed from the prohibition, for instance, on having a Government-promoted campaign to buy local—the 1982 case against the Irish Government on Guaranteed Irish and the Irish Goods Council. We will now, outside the European Union, be able to use public money to support local procurement, not just within the public sector but among consumers and also within the private sector, talking to some of our anchor companies. So, these are some of the ideas. We’ve talked about structural funds; certainly, we need to have some security beyond 2020.

The UK Labour Party manifesto, again, says:

‘we will ensure that no region or nation of the UK is affected by the withdrawal of EU funding for the remainder of this Parliament.’

Well, that’s, quite frankly, not good enough. We need a long-term commitment. We need a marshalled plan for the Welsh economy, to be honest with you. We need a 20-year-long commitment to closing the economic gap that has actually arisen over successive governments of different political hues. And yes, we need a regional work visa system, because there are different migration and skill needs in the Welsh economy, again, because of the different structure of our economy to other parts of the UK. The City of London Corporation has made this argument in the context of its needs, but we in Wales also should be making the case as we move to a different way of managing the migration policy overall, whatever the relationship is with the EU and the single market. We should actually make a case for doing what they do in Canada, which is saying, ‘Different regions have different needs; let’s have that reflected in migration terms as well’. Thank you.