Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 2:11, 26 March 2019

I have to say, First Minister, members of the Labour Party will be looking on with despair at what you've just said. I was standing in solidarity—[Interruption.] I was standing in solidarity with members of the Labour Party because, on certain issues, we should put aside our party differences. Yes, the people's vote is my party's policy; it's your party's policy too. Why are you and the leader of the Labour Party not standing up for it? Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary, said over the weekend that whatever solution finds a majority at Westminster—and I'm quoting him directly here, First Minister—there must be a public vote as 'a lock or a check', and that needs to be between a credible leave option and remain.

Now, it is true—it is true—that Jeremy Corbyn remains more equivocal. In the House of Commons last night, he merely said,

'this House must also consider whether any deal should be put to the people for a confirmatory vote', with no indication how he would vote. So, we have continuing confusion at Westminster about Labour's position, but we didn't expect that confusion to extend here when we voted clearly in January—the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru—together in favour of a people's vote. I have to say—I have to say to the First Minister that the water in the Labour leader's office in London may be now as red as yours, but clear it's not. Shouldn't your loyalty be to Wales? Shouldn't that weigh more heavily than your loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn?