6. 5. Statement: ‘Brexit and Fair Movement of People’

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:07 pm on 19 September 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:07, 19 September 2017

Well, let me start with the final point, because I set out very specifically in my statement the reasons why we believe that our future special relationship with Europe should include a differentiated and preferential approach to immigration for EEA and Swiss nationals. We do that because of the 40-year history that we have with the European Union. It is possible—it is possible intellectually and in policy terms—to differentiate between a policy that you would wish to have in relation to those countries and the policy that you would have with the rest of the world, and we do that in our paper.

Let me say, Llywydd, that our paper does not for a moment ignore the stresses and strains that some communities feel that the scale and speed of immigration has created. We try to take that head on. We try to set out the facts of the matter. We try to explain why, in our view, people from the rest of the world make a substantial net contribution to life here in Wales. They do so economically, and I thought that the Member had to work incredibly hard to try and find an argument that tried to undermine that proposition. We’ll all be older one day, Llywydd, and not making the economic contribution we make. But, here and now, people from the European Union who are here today undoubtedly make a net contribution to our national wealth, and they do far more than that. It’s not just the economic contribution they make; it’s the contribution they make in all sorts of other ways. But we don’t ignore the anxieties that people have faced, even when you set out the facts, which is why we put such an emphasis in our paper on making sure that the protections that ought to be there for people who do live precarious economic lives and have anxieties that freedom of movement has been too easily turned into freedom to exploit—. We say that the safeguards that those people need and deserve and ought to have need to be strengthened and made more effective.

I thank the Member for what he said at the end about hoping that the UK Government responds seriously to this paper. I believe that if they do, and if they are interested in putting the needs of the United Kingdom’s economy at the very top of their list when it comes to negotiations as we leave the European Union, they will find much in here that allows them to secure that outcome.