9. Debate on NNDM6985 — EU Withdrawal Negotiations

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:05 pm on 5 March 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 6:05, 5 March 2019

Absolutely it's called democracy, and you're entitled to change your mind. What you're not entitled to do is to suggest that somehow the position that we take, which was the position you took, is somehow not to be supported. The position I take is the position I've said time after time, Llywydd, and it's why we won't vote for his amendment, because, actually, in the end, what he is interested in is this sort of petty political point scoring—this sort of tactical nonsense that he indulges in here on the floor of the Assembly. My position is this: let a deal be done. If a deal can't be done, then it has to go back to the people—then we're in favour of a people's vote. That's the position we support. I say it again: I've got no difficulty with it whatsoever.

Llywydd, let me move to a close by quoting what my colleague the Scottish First Minister said about today's debate. She said:

'It is worth emphasising that this is the first occasion in 20 years of devolution when the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly have acted in unison in this way. We have been brought together by our dismay—which borders now on despair—at the United Kingdom Government’s approach to...Brexit.'

The motion provides the basis, even at this late hour, for a more sensible and less damaging approach. By doing so, it allows us to act in the interests not just of our own constituents but of the UK as a whole—indeed, of Europe as a whole. 'I commend it', Nicola Sturgeon said, 'I commend it'. I hope that Members, both of the Scottish Parliament and our friends in the Assembly, will vote for it this evening. Llywydd, I commend it too. I agree with Delyth Jewell: this is not a parlour game. Let us speak with one voice on one common proposition, and, as the UK Government moves to a set of decisive votes next week, let us leave no-one in any doubt of the views of Scotland and of Wales. Vote for the proposition put by this Government in front of this Assembly, by the Scottish Government in front of the Scottish Parliament, and let us speak in that common voice and in a common cause, because that is the way in which we will maximise our influence and put that pressure we need to bring on the Prime Minister to do the right thing and to ensure that the interests of our people are put at the heart of the deal that she will strike with the European Union.