6. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance: The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:03 pm on 25 April 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:03, 25 April 2018

I thank the Member for what she said. I don't think I would describe the negotiations as having a tipping point. Right up to Monday of last week, when the three Governments last met together, there were further points that both Scotland and Wales wished to include in the agreement, further ground that we wanted to gain. It has been an incremental process in which, step by step and bit by bit, we have inched our way to the point where I feel able to come to the Assembly today and to say that we will put a legislative consent motion and recommend its agreement to you. Scotland are committed, and we are with them, to inching that process even further forward. If we can achieve that, we'll be very glad to play our part in it. But that's the way I think these negotiations have worked—not a sudden point at which things tip from being unacceptable to being acceptable, but a long slog, week in, week out, with officials particularly putting long, long hours into things to reach the point that we have finally reached today.