9. Debate: The Second Anniversary of the EU Referendum

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:41 pm on 19 June 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 6:41, 19 June 2018

The reality is David Cameron bears a lot of responsibility, I'm afraid, because I said to him, 'Don't hold it in June, hold it in September.' He thought he could win the referendum as he had in Scotland. That was the problem. He was still riding on what had happened in Scotland and, as a result, there was complacency there. It was something that I did say to him at the time.

I have to say to the leader of Plaid Cymru that she is suggesting that the focus should have been on fighting the EU referendum after the election was over, but her focus in the first week was doing a deal with the Tories and UKIP to get herself elected as First Minister. [Interruption.] I haven't got time, unfortunately. 

There are two more points that I have to make. First of all, Jenny Randerson made the—of all people. Jenny Rathbone made the point that we are not ready to deal with a customs union. Ports are not ready, I made that point last week. Nothing has been done in the ports to facilitate the movement of goods through the ports. The UK Government will blame the ports, I've no doubt about that, if there are delays in those ports.

Simon Thomas makes a perfectly correct point when he says that, in the campaign for the referendum, it was said time and time again—it was always the UK Parliament, we weren't mentioned—power must return to Parliament, except when Parliament doesn't agree with us. That's the Brexiteer message.

If you want to look for an interpretation of where people stand, people were offered the chance last year to vote for a hard Brexit as proposed by the Prime Minister and the people said, 'No thanks.' They said, 'We want something different, we don't want the Brexit the Conservative Party proposed.' It's time now for some realism. It's time now for some humility on behalf of the Conservative Party in London. But, above all, it's time for us to see leadership in London, as we have in Wales, to deliver a sensible Brexit, which is what I believe the people of Wales voted for.