Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 8 May 2019.
Well, I thank the Member for her advice on how to answer the questions. I think perhaps sometimes it's easy to lose track of the number of questions in any particular response. But I will do my best to answer the key questions at least. In relation to her description of the Welsh Government's position, which remains, as I will say again, as described in the policy document agreed with her party, it is not a question of being outside a customs union. We have called for a permanent custom's union with the European Union and close alignment to the single market. So, I just wish to clarify that misunderstanding. And I do reject the point about party political expediency. There are difficult judgments to be made in reconciling the response that the British public gave in 2016 with what we understand in this place, on these benches, and on her party's benches, I know, to be the damage caused to the Welsh economy as a consequence of Brexit. What we have judged to be the best way to reconcile that is as described in 'Securing Wales' Future'. If we are not able to achieve something that reflects the principles in that document, then our policy remains, as it has been, and endorsed by this Assembly on at least two separate occasions, that a people's vote is an alternative means of resolving the situation. We have, in fact, called on the UK Government to take steps to prepare for that eventuality, and I most recently raised that directly with David Lidington in my conversation with him of 11 April.