8. Will the First Minister provide an update on discussions with the UK Government regarding Brexit? OAQ53930

Llywydd, we continue to have regular discussions with the UK Government on Brexit-related issues. Following the JMC(EN) meeting held on 9 May, Jeremy Miles met with Stephen Barclay, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, and Eluned Morgan met with Liam Fox, Secretary of State for the Department for International Trade. Both those meetings took place last week and both of those meetings took place in Cardiff. 

When our European partners agreed to extend the Brexit deadline two months ago, the message from Jean-Claude Juncker was very clear: don't waste this time. Since then, we've had six weeks of fruitless talks between the Conservatives and Labour, and now, in an unparalleled act of self-absorbed navel-gazing, the Conservatives in Westminster are about to embark on a leadership contest, proving what many of us have known all along, that Brexit, for them, is about what's best for their party not what's best for the country.

In the meantime, manufacturing companies in my constituency are continuing to live with Brexit uncertainty every single day. Would the First Minister agree with me that we are now rapidly running out of road on this issue and that it is becoming increasingly clear that the only realistic way to resolve this impasse is to put this back to the people in another vote? And would you agree with me that this is not, as Mark Reckless has tried to claim, about disrespecting the views of the people. This is about giving everyone the opportunity to have a final say on a deal that would impact on us for years to come once we know what that deal looks like. This is about listening to the people. 

I thank Lynne Neagle for that. I agree with her that the outlook for Brexit is bleak, in the sense that having secured an extension from the European Union, we now look as though the Prime Minister is determined to put her failed deal back in front of the House of Commons again, with, as far as I can see, no prospect whatsoever of it succeeding. There will then be three months' worth of a Conservative Party leadership contest in which it will be impossible for any sensible Government business to be done.

It really is for the House of Commons to grasp this issue and to put a proper proposition in front of the House of Commons in relation to a second vote, so that, if that is to happen, we can have that decided upon early, so that preparations can be made during the period that we have left. Now, it's for the House of Commons to make that decision, but the day is coming when that decision really has to be made. If it is made, if that is what the House of Commons decides because there is no other way through this impasse, then, of course, it is not a democratic dereliction to return to people and ask them for a second view. Nothing could be more absurd in a place like this, where we all have to face a democratic decision regularly as part of our political lives, to suggest that going back to people and asking them for their view is anything other than to respect that basic democratic proposition. We will see—it is for the House of Commons to make that decision. If they decide—as we've said here many times, if that proposition is put back in front of people here in Wales, the advice of the Welsh Government will be, as it always has been, that Wales's future is better secured through continued membership of the European Union. 

Thank you, First Minister.