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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 18 September 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:14, 18 September 2018

Llywydd, can I thank the Member for his questions and say how good it is to be having today's opportunity to pick up conversations held with him earlier in the year? He began with a reference that echoes something that the director of the CBI, Carolyn Fairbairn, said recently when she described those who advocate a hard Brexit as the triumph of ideology over evidence, and I think he made that point very well in the outset. I'm not going to quarrel with him today over the difference between a definite or an indefinite article. If the text said 'a', then that's what I ought to have read out, so he can assume that the written word is more reliable than my rapid reading in the Chamber this afternoon. In a general election, of course, I hope there will be a majority Labour Government, and that would bring with it a whole series of advantages for Wales, including a sane approach to Brexit, but going much further than that, of course.