The reason why we decided to bring forward this statement today was because we didn't want the Assembly not to have an opportunity to discuss these vitally important matters in advance of the recess. And I acknowledge what the Member said in opening about the need to make sure that there is full engagement here in this Parliament. I disagree with the Member on a number of points, and I'll deal with those briefly, before going on to deal with some of the things where I think there is agreement between us.

First of all, I think the time has long gone when keeping a 'no deal' outcome on the table was of any use to the Prime Minister in her negotiations with the European Union. Maybe—I doubted it then, but I would at least have been prepared to accept the theoretical possibility early on that keeping that on the table might have been useful. But, as the weeks have seeped by, the idea that that gives the Prime Minister any leverage at all in her discussions elsewhere has long, long evaporated. Instead, it is now an inhibition to getting the sort of agreement that we rely upon our European partners to come to the table and help us to agree. It would help the Prime Minister to secure the majority she needs on the floor of the House of Commons if she were simply to take that possibility away. And the leader of the opposition met the Prime Minister because the House of Commons had passed a resolution ruling out 'no deal', and he had said to her all along that that was one of the conditions on which he would meet her. When the House of Commons voted in favour of that proposition, he immediately agreed to meet, and the sort of arrangements for Brexit that were set out in his letter, as I said earlier, were widely welcomed in the European Union as forming the basis for the sort of deal that could command a majority in the House of Commons and would be able to be negotiated with them.

Now, Llywydd, I don't doubt for a single moment the sincerity of the leader of the opposition when he expresses his concerns for the economic consequences of decisions that are being made that affect the lives of people here in Wales. I don't believe that Brexit played no part in Honda's decision. I agree that it was a background rather than a foreground decision, and the foreground decisions are the ones that the company has pointed to in relation to international changes in the automotive industry. But, when I met Ford with Ken Skates last week, what they said to us was that the challenges that face them are not caused primarily by Brexit, but they are compounded by Brexit. Brexit is there in the background and is making life for all these major manufacturers more difficult than it otherwise would be. Of course, I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has agreed to an extension, a transition period, if her deal can be secured, because we argued for that from the very first meeting we held with members of the UK Government after the referendum of June 2016. And I will certainly represent the views of Welsh businesses. It's amongst the most powerful things that I'm able to do in meetings with UK Ministers: to pass on to them the views that Welsh businesses have directly passed to us.   

In relation to the final questions the Member raised arising from the auditor general's report, well, he will have seen the report that said that the Welsh Government has taken positive steps to engage public service leaders through the partnership council. We had a special meeting of it on Brexit in January. We continue to engage with local government leaders and others. I have some sympathy for them, Llywydd. Here they are, hard-pressed, as we hear around this Chamber week after week, with Members here wanting more to be spent on front-line services, as do we, and now being asked to take money away from those services to prepare for an eventuality that they bitterly hope will not take place, and that's an invidious position for any local authority leader to be in. Nevertheless, we go on working with them, providing funding to them as well, in order to assist them in the work that we will need them to undertake should a 'no deal' Brexit actually take place.