Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 10 January 2018.
Can I concur, Cabinet Secretary, with everything that Mick Antoniw has said, particularly on the Trade Bill, which I think is very worrying, because it just reflects a continuation of the way in which the UK Government approaches this, and most of what Simon Thomas says—though perhaps I might challenge the fact that just because Damian Green left just before Christmas and there's been a reshuffle—? They had a month before that, when amendments were laid down by both the Welsh and Scottish Governments, to actually come and negotiate and set up possible amendments for the Report Stage, and they still haven't done that. So, to me, it worries me, because it shows that they don't really want to discuss with you, and they're going to try and steamroller this through the House of Lords. So, in that sense, are you in discussions with the Lords to look at whether you can re-establish your Welsh and Scottish Government amendments, in the light that the UK Government fails to come up with something sensible? And, also, will you be looking at the continuity Bill to look at the timescales that we need to address? Because that is now getting very, very tight. If we need to get the continuity Bill in place and approved, we have to do it before the parliamentary process completes, and it's getting tighter and tighter all the time, the longer this takes. I'm sure the UK Government totally knows that and is pushing it to its limit as much as possible, so we have to start taking this forward.
I don't trust the Tories in London, and, in fact, I listened to the debate of the Scottish Tories, as I told you on Monday in our scrutiny session. If you listen to that debate, they have no confidence from me—me having confidence in them actually taking this forward. They seem to accept what the UK Government is saying, and do not really address the devolved issues that we need to address—devolved issues that Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament agree with us on. So, we need to get that sorted out, and faith in the UK Government is not there.