Llywydd, considering the disorder in the Parliament in London and as we await the result of the motion of no confidence this evening, now is the time to ensure that we work towards one unified aim here at the National Assembly for Wales, to ensure that the key interests of Wales are noted clearly and safeguarded. That’s what our main objective has been since the 2016 referendum.

I’m grateful to Plaid Cymru for outing forward this motion. We fully support it. A ‘no deal’ Brexit is an unacceptable result, this is our stance as a party here and in Westminster. It would be the worst possible outcome and the United Kingdom Prime Minister has wasted two years repeating that, ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’, when she should have been developing a practical strategy and trying to engender support for it across parties. No deal is the worst possible outcome, and we’ve been saying that from the very first day. The credible evidence shows that leaving without a deal would lead to greater job losses, the economy shrinking, uncertainty and costs for businesses that export, as Adam Price described, and even domestic companies that rely on European supply chains. It’s incredible that any government in the United Kingdom Parliament would allow such a result that would so clearly be against the interests of the nation. It’s said that there’s no majority in Parliament in favour of a ‘no deal’ Brexit and the Prime Minister said she would listen to Parliament. It’s about time now that she considers carefully the voices being raised against a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

From the point of view of the second part of the motion, the First Minister of Wales has already written to Theresa May asking for the reconvening of the UK Joint Ministerial Committee in plenary as a matter of urgency to discuss the crisis following the vote in the Commons last night. He’s noted clearly that that is on the presumption that the Government will survive the no confidence vote and that she will not have done what she should have done having suffered such a great loss, namely to step aside. In the letter, he asks the meeting to agree to four things, namely: to reject a ‘no deal’ exit as a result of the negotiations; to commit to holding immediately a series of cross-party discussions in Parliament and to work with devolved administrations and institutions to agree on a new way forward—this should include renegotiation based on a firm commitment to participate in the single market and in a customs union or to give the option back to the people of the UK by committing to a general election or a people’s vote; to ask for extension of the article 50 process to facilitate this; and to legislate to abolish the reference to 29 March in the legislation.

From our part, we welcome the commitment, despite it being so late in the day, that the Conservative Government, if it survives, will work in a cross-party way with the House of Commons in order to find a way forward. This of course will have to include the front benches of all the opposition parties and the devolved institutions. The Government must also do what it pledged to do in establishing the Joint Ministerial Committee on European Union negotiations and try and seek consensus on the way forward with us and the Scottish Government.