Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 5 September 2019.
Which we absolutely opposed. So, I think the—[Interruption.] You haven't heard what I said earlier, which is that Boris Johnson is saying that he will not comply with the law in his enthusiasm for leaving the EU. So, they do not want—. Transitional deals are for the birds, as far as they're concerned. They want to flood our country—. They want to do a deal with Donald Trump and his business partners because—. And they want to flood our country with adulterated foods, which would put our farmers out of business and force on us the obesogenic diet most American citizens are content to eat. They want to make zero-hours contracts the norm, destroying the guaranteed maternity and paternity pay and the sick leave and holiday entitlements that we enjoy thanks to the EU, and they want to remove all regulatory restraints on businesses. We have seen today that Amazon has simply ignored the copyright rules in the pursuit of profit by dispatching embargoed copies of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments so that they can put small competitors in book shops out of business. And that is the way in which other monopoly companies across the world, who are anxious to make Britain a platform for their activities, will behave. And this is not competition, this is not choice: this is monopoly. That is why I personally would oppose Brexit, although I fully understand the coherent position taken by David Melding and, indeed, by Ken Clarke on this matter. That discussion is for another day. But, for me, what we have to do is protect, particularly, our most vulnerable constituents, and taking Britain peremptorily out of the EU without a deal is absolutely against their interests.
We know that the UK Government has no plan for any new deal with the EU, because Stephen Barclay himself has asked the EU-27 to come up with an alternative to the backstop, because they don’t have any other ideas. And, indeed, the UK Government is now spending the money that had originally been set aside to cope with 'no deal' on pre-election sweeteners, because that is the way they feel that they will be able to impose 'no deal'. So, I think we face a very dangerous situation and I think it is absolutely right that we have this debate today.