4. What is the Welsh Government’s policy on implementing the decision made in the EU referendum? OAQ53801

Llywydd, the Welsh Government has always respected the result of the referendum, but has never believed that people in Wales voted for harm to be done to their own economic future and that of their children. That remains the basis of our policy.  

The people of Wales voted to leave the European Union. Now, the First Minister doesn't agree with that decision, but doesn't he need to respect it? Did he see the results in the local elections in England last week and, in particular, that by far the worst results for Labour were across ex-coalfield communities? Does he agree with the Members who represent Blaenau Gwent, which voted to leave by 62 per cent, or Torfaen, which voted to leave by 60 per cent, that the electorate should be ignored and forced to vote again because they do not respect their constituents or the decision they made?

Well, Llywydd, it's never been the policy of the Welsh Government to ignore what voters say. I don't think that any member of the Welsh Government stood for one party and then ignored the views of the people who voted for them and decided to join another party here on the floor of the Assembly, so I don't think we need many lectures on this side of the Assembly about respecting democratic decisions.

As I said in my answer to the Member, we have always been focused on the form rather than the fact of leaving the European Union, because we respect the fact that there was a vote by people in Wales, and it's a vote that we regretted because we campaigned for the opposite result. I have always believed, as Steffan Lewis, our colleague, I remember said the day after the referendum, that while people in Wales may have voted to leave the European Union, nobody in Wales had voted to take leave of their senses. And it would be an act of leaving our senses to crash out of the European Union, to leave on the sort of terms that the Member is constantly advocating, because those would do profound economic and social damage to Wales, and the Welsh Government will not stand idly by and see that happen.

First Minister, as you quite rightly pointed out, the people of Blaenau Gwent did not vote for fewer services, did not vote for fewer jobs, did not vote to be poorer, did not vote to see a reduction in spending on essential public services. The people of Blaenau Gwent voted against austerity, voted against the Tory policy that is ripping the heart out of our communities, whether some people recognise it or not. On the basis that we are elected to protect the interests of the people we represent and to fight hard for the people we represent, can you assure me, First Minister, that you will keep fighting hard for a referendum that won't be fought on the lies of the previous referendum but on the hard reality of what we are facing in terms of a hard Brexit, a crash-out Brexit, a blind Brexit and a Brexit that'll undermine our economy and our ability to deliver services?

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.