<p>Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders</p>

Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 11 July 2017.

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Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 1:50, 11 July 2017

Llywydd, I agree absolutely 100 per cent with everything that the leader of Plaid Cymru has just said—[Interruption.] There are occasions when UKIP can be ecumenical. In the interests of the Welsh people, this is one of them, and it’s something that, perhaps, we can follow up in the Public Accounts Committee, if not in a public inquiry, if that be not granted.

But I want to ask about the First Minister’s forthcoming meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator on Brexit, which I understand is happening on Thursday. Is he going to use this opportunity to complement the UK Government’s negotiating strategy or to seek to undermine it? I believe that the First Minister accepts that we are going to leave the single market, and the Government has said it is going to leave the customs union. That is something that I don’t believe to be negotiable. I read that he is going to say to Michel Barnier that it is vital in the interests of Welsh jobs that we remain, if not members of the single market, at least with full frictionless access to it, but does he not accept that, when you go into a negotiation, like Michel Barnier himself, you should play hardball, not softball. If you go into a negotiation accepting the fundamental tenets of the other side’s arguments, then you’re not likely to get the deal you want, but a worse one. So, what he should explain to Michel Barnier on Thursday is the advantages of mutuality here, both to the Europeans and to the British of having the maximum possible free trade between us. Simply using it as an opportunity to grandstand against the negotiating strategy of the UK Government is likely to fail anyway, but will also do the Welsh Government no good in its dealings with the UK Government at home.