Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:12 pm on 30 January 2019.
Sit down. Sit down. Let me tell you—let me tell you—those votes were bought with snake oil, and they were bought with a fantasy. And let me tell you this—let me tell you this—when I listen to the closest allies and friends of this country speaking with horror at what they're seeing, I take notice and so should you. The words of Simon Coveney, the Irish Tánaiste, this morning should reverberate in this Chamber. Somebody who has sought to work with the United Kingdom Government, somebody who I remember from European Council meetings, who is more pro-UK than any other Irish politician I've met, is wringing his hands with horror at the situation created by the British Conservative Party and the UK Government. And when I hear Neil Hamilton telling me that we should be looking forward to the great choice of food that we'll have on our empty shelves in a few weeks' time, what I hear are the leaders of retail businesses telling us it's a lie and a fantasy. Perhaps you should listen to what you're being told.
So, I welcome the Government's motion today. I welcome the Government's motion, and I welcome the commitment of the Welsh Government to a second referendum, and I welcome the commitment of the Welsh Government to a vote that is based on a premise and a prospectus that we will all understand. I hope that referendum will be a straight choice between the deal that Mrs May has negotiated—which is an appalling deal, so we hear from her own party—. I don't understand how Darren can ask us to support a deal that he himself, through his criticism of the backstop, says it's unworkable and that we need an alternative to.