Thank you, Llywydd. The events last night in the House of Commons, rather than clarifying the issue, have confused things further. Of course, we welcome the fact that the House of Commons has stated clearly that a 'no deal' Brexit is an unacceptable outcome to the Brexit negotiations, a view expressed by this Assembly a fortnight ago, which demonstrates the force of decisions taken within the Assembly informing opinion. The UK Government must listen to this and, as the First Minister of Wales told the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom last week, must state clearly that leaving without a deal is not an option. I don't want to rehearse the debates of last week, but leaving without agreement would be disastrous. It is impossible for any credible Government to continue without stating clearly that that simply isn't an option.

The first step will be for the Government to introduce the necessary subordinate legislation to abolish the reference to 29 March as the leaving date. But these steps aren't enough alone. In one way at least, the Prime Minister was right in insisting that it isn't possible for us alone to remove the sword of Damocles hovering above us—the threat of leaving without a deal on 29 March. Although a majority in the House of Commons, in this Assembly and in the Scottish Parliament, as well as the trade unions and the business community almost in its entirety believe that a 'no deal' Brexit is unacceptable, that fact doesn't mean that it is now impossible. And even if the UK Parliament were to redefine the date of departure, unless each of the 27 other member states of the European Union also agreed to the extension of the deadline of two years set under article 50, this will not happen.