The European Council Meeting

Part of Emergency Question – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 1:30, 26 March 2019

Thank you for that answer, Counsel General. And it's very interesting the last comment that you just made, but, clearly, last week we saw the Speaker of the House of Commons making it quite clear that the Prime Minister couldn't take back the motion, which hadn't been amended anyway whatsoever. She went to the European Council on 21 and 22 March, making a request for an extension, though, as the First Minister indicated yesterday, they had not seen what that request was. She spent the weekend in chaos, talking to Brexiteers in her private dwelling in Chequers. And, yesterday, she actually laid a statutory instrument asking for the extension, or change of date to the exit, again without informing the devolved nations that she was doing so. It is total chaos. And she last night lost the vote again in the Commons.

As you say, it is pleasing to see that the European Council, and Parliament, is now taking action to take back control of this whole process, because the Prime Minister has totally run out of ideas—well, she only had one, and it's not going anywhere, is it? And she's also now running out of time. But the extension you've talked about is only two weeks and, in two weeks' time, we could be facing the same situation, where we could be leaving without a deal. Do you agree, therefore, that it's essential she now commits to take this forward, she needs to actually work with other parties, she needs to look and be actually co-operating with other groups to see if we can get the best deal possible? And if that fails, she should go back to the people and ask for a general election, so that we can actually get a voice on this and get this Government, which is in total failure, out.