Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:00 pm on 5 June 2019.
You're making a mockery of democracy. We gave the people of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom the opportunity to have their say. They were told it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have their say on whether they wanted to stay or leave the European Union. They were told explicitly by the remain campaign—. They were given all sorts of 'facts'. They were told that the stock market would crash if they voted to come out. They were told that we'd go into an immediate recession, that our unemployment rate would spiral out of control. And yet the economy's still growing, unemployment is still coming down, and our stock market is still climbing. That is the reality.
Now, we know that there's been a change of heart. We know that there's been a change of heart. To be fair to the First Minister of Wales, he's looked at these results and he's trying to cobble together something that he thinks can save them from the impending doom that they have in terms of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn by calling for a second referendum. I understand that there may be some logic in wanting to avoid Jeremy Corbyn continuing to be leader of your party. I understand that. But you can't claim to be respecting the outcome of the referendum in any way if you're a person who advocates a second referendum that is a rerun of the first, with 'remain' on the ballot sheet, because that is what you are trying to do. Now, to be fair, we've got a long history in this country of respecting the outcome of referendums, okay. We really have. To be fair to the Liberal Democrats, when they lost the alternative vote referendum, they respected that result. They didn't call for another referendum to be held. I'll happily take an intervention.