Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Well, two weeks ago, on the Wednesday before this month’s general election, I had to explain to the Chamber that the Government would be unable to support some elements in a detailed Plaid Cymru motion on Brexit, because at the time I said that I thought it was very important that, as we entered the post-election period, we stick to the fundamental case that we set out in ‘Taking Wales Forward’, as agreed between our two parties. Today, the Government side will vote for this much tighter motion because we believe that it articulates some shared Welsh interests, and I was very glad to hear what Steffan Lewis said in introducing the debate about the way in which our joint White Paper continues to represent the best statement of our joint view.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I should be clear that the Government would not support either of the two Conservative amendments. They appear to have been drafted as though the general election had never taken place. Indeed, they reflect the position of the Conservative Party more generally, trapped in the headlights of a car crash of their own making. It is simply not good enough to repeat the position taken by the Prime Minister in the days before she threw away her majority. That position was put before the electorate on 8 June. We were told that it was the key question that had motivated the calling of the election, and when the public has decided otherwise, the UK Government cannot simply cannot carry on, as the Conservative Party amendments to this debate do, as if nothing had happened.

Now, the motion before the Assembly asserts our democratic credentials in representing Welsh interests. It reaffirms our long-held position that devolved competencies exercised at the EU level remain, as Dr Dai Lloyd just articulated, and with all the authority that he brought from his friends at the end of Worm’s Head—that those competencies remain here in the National Assembly once Brexit has taken place. Last week, the First Minister published our paper on Brexit and devolution. The document makes it clear that, as we have repeatedly emphasised, after we have left the European Union, powers already devolved to Wales remain devolved. And let me be absolutely clear with Members that we will oppose any attempt by the UK Government to reclaim any powers over areas of devolved competence for itself. And that is a position that we have articulated—