Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 11 June 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:45, 11 June 2019

I thank the Member for all those possibilities. I think it's really important that wherever there are ideas about the way in which a future for that plant and that community can be fashioned that we pool these ideas and we explore them all. Everything that he has said I think is worth adding to that mix. But it will go into a mix that has already been in development, as I said, over many months. 

I understand what he said. I was with shop stewards in the plant early on Friday morning with the GMB and with Unite. The feeling of anger and betrayal was absolutely palpable amongst the people around that table. You heard the reasons, Llywydd, I know, from other Members earlier in the discussion. That feeling that the workforce that had done everything that was asked of them, whenever the company asked the trade unions and the workforce to be around the table and to agree to improvements made, they felt they never failed to make that contribution, and that's why the sense of fight amongst those members was very palpable when I met with them.

We have a responsibility, as Adam Price said, to prepare for whatever eventualities there may be, and bringing different firms—the recent announcement of new jobs of the sort that he described at Port Talbot through Onyx—and other ideas, other companies that we have been working with. There is a real responsibility, Llywydd, on the UK Government to make sure that its industrial strategy works for Wales and that they too put their shoulder to the wheel to make sure that where there are these different possibilities that will emerge and be talked about over the next few weeks, that they too do everything they can to make sure that the interest of those workers are supported, promoted, and that real practical assistance, money and effort that the UK Government can make is made on their behalf.