The European Union Referendum

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 7 May 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:02, 7 May 2019

Well, Llywydd, let me agree with everything the Member said in relation to those complex reasons that lay behind the decisions that people made at the ballot box back in 2016, and particularly those parts of Wales that had felt themselves held back, felt themselves cut off from the prosperity that others were able to enjoy and had felt that they were being asked to bear an entirely unfair burden of austerity. Those people—I entirely agree with what the Member has said: none of those people voted to have a worse future for themselves or for their families. If a deal cannot be struck of the sort that protects those people's futures, that meets the six tests that the Labour Party has set out, then, going back to people for a further and final decision seems to me to be inevitable. As a Government, as I've said many times, if that position were to take place, nothing that we have seen in the nearly three years that have now lapsed since that referendum leads us to believe that the advice we gave back in 2016 was the wrong advice, and we will say again to people in Wales that, if they have that opportunity, our future is better secured and their futures and their families' futures are better secured through continued membership of the European Union.