I wanted to speak briefly in this debate to make an appeal to all Members here and to everyone who might aspire to become an elected Member in the future.

A lot has been said about immigration and many people in the immigration debate confuse refugees with free movement of people in a way that isn’t helpful. The way in which this debate has taken place has, in some instances, left a very nasty taste in the mouth, in particular the way in which immigration was represented during the EU referendum debate. I refer here to that toxic poster that evoked an anti-refugee poster from 1930s Germany. If you put those two posters together, the similarities are remarkable. Yet the status of refugees was never an issue in the EU referendum. Pulling out of the EU will make no difference to our international obligations to provide asylum for those fleeing war or persecution, and to give the impression that it would was misleading at best, vicious propaganda at worst. And there are consequences to the tone of this debate. I’m sure everyone in this Chamber was as dismayed and abhorred as I was to hear the news about a man who had moved to Cardiff, driving a hired van into a group of people outside a London mosque. An appalling incident, I’m sure everyone would agree. And we must all take it upon ourselves to reduce the likelihood of something like that happening again.

And I’d like to take this opportunity this afternoon to say this to all of our Muslim neighbours: we know that the vast majority of you would abhor violent extremism as much as we do, and I’m sure that you are concerned in this current climate. Plaid Cymru believes that everyone must work together to root out violent extremism from our communities and to create the conditions whereby we can all live together as good neighbours without fear and without hate. But we can’t do that if politicians and aspiring politicians give false information, use Nazi-style propaganda to make their points, and speak in a tone in this debate that fuels people’s fears, prejudices and bigotry. We are one Wales. Everyone living here deserves respect and deserves to be included in our society and in our communities. All of us should feel safe as we good around our daily business. People of colour should be able to live without racism. Muslims should be able to live without Islamophobia.

I’ve not named names here this afternoon. We all know the tone that I am referring to, and, unfortunately, this isn’t just confined to one particular political party. Wherever it comes from, some people take their cues from politicians. We all have to take that responsibility seriously and I appeal to politicians everywhere to step up to that responsibility.