The Impact of a 'No Deal' Brexit on the Automotive Sector in Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 5 February 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:16, 5 February 2019

Well, Llywydd, the Member is absolutely right that uncertainty is the enemy of investment and that is a message that the CBI and other industry-leading bodies have said for months and months and months. Brexit for them is not something that will happen after 29 March, Brexit is something that has been happening now for many months, and decisions are being made in businesses across Wales and across the United Kingdom, where things that would have been done and would have been in place and prosperity would have been supported—those things are not being done because of the uncertainty and the way in which this UK Government has managed to bungle Brexit right up to the very final line. And, of course, the Member is right—she will remember the debate we had here on the floor of the Assembly when Mrs May first declared her deal. There are things that are wrong with the withdrawal agreement, and we pointed to those here. But the things that are wrong with the political declaration are even more significant, and expecting this Assembly or anybody else to sign up to that flimsy document without any sorts of guarantees about the type of future that we need the other side of the European Union—no wonder she ended up with the defeat that she had, and no wonder that this Assembly was not willing to support it either.