Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:40 pm on 30 January 2019.
Well, I was puzzled by that bit of it, and she made lots of great sounds about free trade agreements in defence of an amendment that advocated for 'no deal'. But, as I said in my opening remarks, the Prime Minister needs to find lasting support for her approach to Brexit.
I listened to Darren Millar's contribution and I have to say I think his ad hominem attacks on Jeremy Corbyn just failed to raise the level of debate in the Chamber. His support for the Brady amendment is completely stunning—an absolutely ludicrous strategy on the part of the Prime Minister that she should be whipping her own backbenchers to support amendments to the deal she said could not be amended. But it demonstrates at least more loyalty to her than many of her backbenchers, as indeed does Mark Reckless, who wasn't even elected here as a Conservative.
They both talked about—. They both talked about respecting the referendum. [Interruption.] They both spoke about respecting the referendum. The reason that we're in the situation that we are in this debate today is because Parliament has failed to reconcile the result of the referendum with the promises that were made to people at that time. This is not easy work. We've spent over two years trying to get to that position, and Parliament has not found itself able to reconcile that, and the reason for that is that Theresa May is failing to deliver on promises made to people during that referendum. That is a fundamental challenge at the heart of her strategy, and why it is failing so miserably.
We hope that Parliament can still unite around a Norway plus-type deal of the sort that this Assembly has supported and the Welsh Government would support. Who knows if that may yet be achievable, but the dire consequences of further delay and the deadlock in Parliament mean that we must now prepare for a public vote.
We will not be supporting the UKIP amendment for the simple fact that it is directly contrary to the interests of the people of Wales, and the support they claim for their ideological 'no deal' crash-out simply is not borne out in our communities.
I am grateful to Rhun ap Iorwerth for indicating that he won't be pressing the Plaid Cymru amendment to a vote. In his speech he reminded us, importantly, not just of the role of relationships between Governments, but also the important role of relationships between Parliaments in this most crucial issue that we all face at this time. I hope that, in that spirit, our Parliament can send out today yet again another clear signal of our view, and I urge your Members to support the motion.