4. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance: Update on European Transition

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:27 pm on 17 July 2018.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:27, 17 July 2018

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I fully welcome your statement and I agree with everything you said in that statement and all the answers you've given. Can I also agree with comments from Steffan Lewis and agree with some of the point he was making? It's very important that we address those. It was poor of the Conservative representative to comment on 'fun and games' in this. These are people's lives, these are our constituents and it's their jobs that are going to be affected by the outcomes of this.

Just some quick questions, Dirprwy Llywydd. On the White Paper, in reading through it—and I'm sorry to say I didn't have time to read through it all—there are very serious elements in there that affect Welsh Government competencies. Now, you said you didn't get the paper until 01:35 in the morning. You, therefore, haven't been consulted on a contribution into that paper. It talks about a joint committee that may oversee work going on, but it doesn't reference the Welsh Government in terms of representation on that joint committee; it talks about other actions. Do you really have confidence that they're going to listen to us in the negotiations going on? We know that they should be in the trade deals, but we're still seeing whether they will or not. There's a huge gap here in confidence in the UK Government in being able to deliver—where our voices are heard, let alone acted upon.