Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:51 pm on 17 January 2018.
Well, some of what I have to say to you is that what would be lost would be the undertakings and the agreements that we have come to with the Scottish Government to work alongside them, to act in a way that is consistent with the way that they will act. Just as they have indicated that they will send their Bill to the Presiding Officer in the Scottish Parliament, yesterday the First Minister gave an undertaking that we would submit our continuity Bill to the Llywydd here before the end of this month, unless it is clear that the UK Government will bring forward satisfactory amendments during the remaining stages of the withdrawal Bill's passage through the Parliament.
Llywydd, I listened very carefully to what Mark Isherwood said in this debate. Those of us who are committed to preserving the rights and responsibilities of this Assembly I think should take a generous view of what the Conservative Party has said here this afternoon. I think Mr Isherwood went further than I’ve heard the Welsh Conservatives up to this point in making it clear that they, too, have real reservations about clause 11 and that they share some of the potential solutions that the Scottish Conservatives have set forward as a potential solution to that Bill. So, I think it was very good to hear that this afternoon.
I do want to say, as Mick Antoniw has said, that there is more to the withdrawal Bill than clause 11. And while the Government will be supporting the motion laid before us today, and we look to use the support of this National Assembly for continuity Bill preparation as part of the points we make to the UK Government, there’s more than clause 11 that we have to get right in those discussions. There will be a need for a Welsh continuity Bill if those negotiations and discussions do not succeed, but in the meantime, we continue to work with others to get the UK withdrawal Bill into a position where it works for the United Kingdom, it works for Wales, and we can bring forward a legislative consent motion that we could recommend to this National Assembly.