Wales's Future Relationship with the EU

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 14 February 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:23, 14 February 2018

I entirely agree with Leanne Wood that we must have more than warm words from the UK Government on this matter. We have to make sure that they act on the promises that they have made, and she is quite right to say that they have made very explicit promises in this area. The Secretary of State for Scotland said on the floor of the House of Commons that the UK Government would come forward with amendments to put right the problems in the withdrawal Bill at Report Stage in the House of Commons, and that did not happen. We have had further repetitions of that promise, however, on paper and orally, that this will now happen at the House of Lords.

The Welsh Government will pursue a twin-track approach here. We will work with our colleagues in the Scottish Government where we have opportunities inside the discussions with UK Government to press them to come forward with an amendment that we could support and that could lead to a legislative consent motion being laid in front of the National Assembly. But we are yet to see any text that would give us comfort that that is to be produced, and, while it isn't available to us, we will pursue amendments at the House of Lords. It was very good to see Lord Dafydd Wigley at a briefing session that the Welsh and Scottish Governments jointly ran in the House of Lords two weeks ago. There was a considerable interest, Llywydd, amongst peers of all parties and crossbenchers, in the case that we were jointly able to make about the defective nature of the withdrawal Bill and why it will need to be amended. If we can't get an agreed amendment with the UK Government, we will pursue our own amendment in the House of Lords, and we will seek to defeat the Government so that we can amend the Bill in the way that is necessary.