Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 5 September 2019.
They've outlined that leaving without easy, tariff-free access to the single market will leave our less favoured area livestock farm incomes—and that means Wales, to a large extent, of course, particularly hard hit—falling to negative figures in the worst case scenario.
And I would ask the First Minister in his response to this debate to assure us that, if we do crash out in a 'no deal' Brexit, his Government will abandon the 'Sustainable Farming and our Land' proposals. I think it would be foolish for the Government not to wait to see what the outcome is of Brexit before ploughing ahead with any proposals. I was heartened by the Minister's suggestion that she’d be open minded to that at the Denbigh and Flint Show this year, and I would like to hear similar assurances from the First Minister this afternoon.
Now, on an environmental level as well, of course, we’ve already rehearsed in previous debates some of the environmental concerns, particularly around implications for environmental governance. If we leave the EU without a deal, there will be no environment watchdog to hold the Welsh Government and others to account, of course. And for those people who tell us, 'What has the EU ever done for us?', well, actually, it’s the EU that regulates the quality of the water that we drink, the air that we breathe and the food that we eat. So, it is quite significant, I would argue. But, of course, if we lose that accountability and that ability to take issues to a higher authority, then, of course, not only will nature suffer, but our own health, ultimately, will suffer as well.
I fear for the implications for Holyhead in my region, of course—the UK’s second biggest ferry port. I fear for companies such as Airbus—a pan-European venture, of course, which is the largest direct employer in north Wales, and you can double that when it comes, of course, to the extensive supply chain that it has as well.
Yes, the EU has faults, and it does need reforming, but I’ll tell you that the UK state is failed and is beyond reform. It’s run by public school boys with a sense of entitlement and superiority who don’t give two hoots for our rural communities in Wales, our struggling town centres. They’re more familiar with the French Riviera than the coastal resorts of north Wales. Yet they would see these communities rot and decay for their ideologically driven desire to create a little Britain—a little Britain free of workers' rights, a little Britain free of environmental safeguards, a little Britain free to sell the NHS to the highest bidder. Westminster isn’t working for Wales, and it’s time Wales takes its own destiny into its own hands.