Diolch, Llywydd. In a joint statement after the people of Wales and the UK voted to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, the Presidents of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament said, and I quote,

'We now expect the United Kingdom government to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible.... We hope to have the UK as a close partner of the EU also in the future.'

Now, contrary to offensive claims repeatedly made here that the people did not know what they were voting for, the well-publicised arguments for Brexit at the time were all about taking back control of our money, borders, laws and trade. I, in fact, checked the press this morning on the day of the referendum to see what they were saying. The Prime Minister has made it clear since that, instead of a hard Brexit, she seeks the greatest possible access to the EU through a new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement. As she said, we're leaving the EU, delivering on the decision made by the British people in the referendum:

'We're committed to getting the best Brexit deal for people, delivering control of our money, borders and laws, while building a new deep and special partnership with the EU.'

In contrast, this Welsh Government motion asks us to support the approach endorsed by Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, which would deliver none of these things, and a Brexit in name only. Further, as I said here last month, the think tank Open Europe told the external affairs committee in Brussels—and I quote—'It would be strange if the UK was in the customs union. The EU would negotiate trade agreements with third parties without the UK at the table.' If the UK is in the single market, they said, it would have to accept all the rules without being able to vote on them.

Whilst claiming to respect the referendum result, both the Labour Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru have spent the last two years preaching doom and gloom, whilst promoting approaches that would undermine it. They claimed that the agreement secured by the UK Government last December, enabling both sides to move on to the next phase of Brexit talks, would never happen, that the Brexit transition period secured by the UK Government would never be agreed, before then taking the credit for it, and, excepting Mr Drakeford, that a way forward allowing this Assembly to give legislative consent to the UK withdrawal Bill would never be secured. Each time, they were wrong, yet they're doing it again as they seek to undermine current negotiations on the UK’s future relationship with the EU, by giving away all our negotiating cards at the outset, and incentivising the EU side to drive a hard bargain.

Our amendment 1, therefore—[Interruption.] Surely if you say to the other side, 'If you refuse to come to an agreement with us, we'll fix it over here afterwards to ensure that we don't actually leave at all'—it's something along those lines. Our amendment 1 therefore

'Recognises that the UK Government is delivering on the decision made in the EU referendum to leave the EU and that its position in negotiations with the EU should not be undermined.'

For centuries, our enemies have sought to divide and destroy us, and as Scottish Conservative MP Ross Thomson said last week, 

'all the SNP cares about is grievance and independence'.

Well, the same applies to Plaid Cymru, where their spoiler approach would have disrupted the UK’s internal market, in which 80 per cent of UK goods and services are traded, destroyed jobs, and driven investment from Wales. As the Prime Minister said in March, the agreement we reach with the EU must respect the referendum, it must endure, it must protect people’s jobs and security, it must be consistent—[Interruption.] I'll take one intervention.