The European Council Meeting

Part of Emergency Question – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 1:43, 26 March 2019

If I may say, the Member does no service to the complexity of the debate in relation to Brexit. And we are, bluntly, in the position that we are in because for too long people have been promised things that they weren't able to deliver and people have not had politicians describing to them the difficult choices involved in navigating these choppy waters. He attacks Members of Parliament for their roles in this. I think that's incredibly irresponsible, and we saw the Prime Minister doing the same from Downing Street last week.

What ought to have happened from the start is the Prime Minister should have listened to more Members of Parliament rather than fewer. They are engaged in a process of trying to reconcile the outcome of the 2016 referendum to the choices involved in that and how we best navigate a situation where respect is paid to that result, but also the least damage is done to the Welsh and the UK economy. I hope that in the coming days, and I'm sure that in the coming days, Members of Parliament will approach that task in a means that pays respect to the 2016 referendum result but also gets us to a position that reflects the kind of Brexit relationship—the post-Brexit relationship—that we've been advocating for here on these benches for two years or more.