6. Plaid Cymru Debate: A confirmatory European Union referendum

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:37 pm on 5 June 2019.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 5:37, 5 June 2019

If I could, perhaps, return then to the actual debate, which is over a referendum—it's not about remain or leave today. I've had plenty of views on that issue; I don't propose to repeat them. What I can say, though, is that, quite rightly, Darren Millar earlier on in this Chamber drew attention to the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-day tomorrow, when 12 nations united to defeat Nazism and fascism. I think what they will have seen today, and what they will see of our politics generally across Britain, would not have found their favour. This is not what they fought for. There is a duty on all of us in this Chamber to think carefully about where we go next as a society. 

What we can agree is that, in 2016, people voted to leave the EU. That is clear. We know that. We can see that from the result. But the problem is, as Llyr Gruffydd has said, there was no plan, there was no document, there was no guidance. When we had our referendums in 1997 and 2011, if people wanted to, they could look at a document that would tell them exactly what would happen, and therein lies the problem.