Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 7 May 2019.
Sorry—? Yes, I have. Yes, I did. [Interruption.]
Far-right parties have gained between 10-20 per cent of the votes in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and many others. And, closer to home, we've seen UKIP lurch to the far right. When I joined UKIP, the leadership made it clear that there was no place in the party for racists, and it even said on the application form to become a member that you could not become a member if you had been a member of a far-right party. And this changed when Gerard Batten became leader. And it was sickening when Gerard Batten and Neil Hamilton shared a platform with Tommy Robinson, and they went further into decline when they welcomed Carl Benjamin, Mark Meechan and Paul Joseph Watson into the party. [Interruption.] Not another one, sorry. It was clear that the party leadership were embracing the far right, and I decided to leave and was soon followed by others who were as outraged as I was. How could the UK leader and the Welsh leader condone outright racism and bigotry? How could they share a stage with people who celebrated Nazi values, if they weren't of those same beliefs?
Anti-Semitism also has no place in society, and many remarks that have been made are distasteful and have incited hatred and riots. And there should be no place in public office for anyone who believes that it is okay to discriminate based upon race, sex, language or religion. We must ensure that what has happened in the US or in other parts of Europe doesn't happen here. We must eradicate the ideology of the far right and the far left who believe it is okay to discriminate based upon race or religion. There is only one race—the human race—and every single being must be free from persecution, and worship whatever god they choose, and this will only happen if we stamp out racism and bigotry, and integration here is of paramount importance.
I urge Members to support the motion as a step on the road to eradicating hate in all forms. And my grandfather always said, your pen writes the same for everyone, and my pen always does.