Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 13 February 2019.
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Counsel General will have seen that Olly Robbins, the Government's chief negotiator with the EU, let the cat out of the bag yesterday in Brussels and revealed Theresa May's true intentions. She has always said that she doesn't want to extend article 50 or to have any delay in Britain leaving the EU beyond 29 March. But Olly Robbins said that his task, or the Government's task in the House of Commons over the next few weeks is to get MPs to believe that, in the week beginning at the end of March, the extension is possible, but if they don't vote for the deal then the extension is going to be a long one. So, on the one hand, the Prime Minister is saying that there won't be an extension, but the man actually doing the day-to-day negotiations is saying that their tactic is to extend the membership of Britain in the EU beyond 29 March if MPs don't agree the deal.