Questions now from the party leaders. Leader of the opposition, Paul Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, do you believe that your Government responds appropriately and immediately to the needs of the people of Wales?

This Government responds every day to the needs of people in Wales—in the health service, in providing housing for people, in the education services that we provide. It's at the core of what we do as a Government.

Well, First Minister, let's discuss some of your immediate proposals, shall we? Back at the start of June, you made the decision to cancel the M4 relief road and waste £144 million of taxpayers' money in the process. Now, as part of that statement you made it clear that a commission would be created and would come forward with a first set of immediate proposals that can be put to work to begin to alleviate the problems experienced on the M4. You even said that you recognised that the action is required more than ever given the significance of these problems, and you concluded by saying

'we will begin on that work immediately.'

However, since 25 June there has been no further update about the work of this commission, the membership or what immediate proposals are taking place. In fact, as I understand it, the commission's initial report has now been pushed back to spring 2020 instead of December this year, and your Government has been squabbling over its budget. Your Government delayed making the initial decision, and even hid behind the Newport West by-election. So, First Minister, what is the excuse now for this further delay?

It's disappointing to hear that the leader of the Conservative Party here in Wales is as careless with the necessary conventions of our political life as his leader is in Westminster. The reason we delayed the announcement because of the Newport by-election is because that is what the rules of by-elections require. Now, I know that his party isn't keen on rules. I know that they don't care about whether or not they observe the way that things ought to be conducted. But it's disappointing to hear the leader of the opposition here align himself with that way of conducting public life here in Wales. While he talks about the waste of public money on major public infrastructure projects, presumably he wasn't reading when his Government made an announcement on HS2 and the billions of pounds that have been squandered by his Government on that. The Burns review has been working hard over the summer. It is working actively, it is recruiting the other members of the commission it will need. We will announce those names very shortly. It will hold its first public engagement event next month, and I expect that the next set of proposals from the review will be with us by the end of this calendar year, as we have said all along.

Well, you have been squabbling over the money that is actually available to this commission, because on 12 July you said that Lord Burns has the first call on all of that £1 billion, but five days later, your economy Minister said

'we're not going to be inviting the commission to spend £1 billion.'

So, as a Government, First Minister, you're all over the place on this. Who is right? You or your economy Minister?

Now, another area where your Government wanted immediate action is on the climate change emergency. So far, you have failed to bring forward substantial immediate proposals to tackle the climate emergency. What has been announced has been more of the same when we know that what we need now is not more of the same, but innovative ideas to reduce our damage to the planet.

Now, the £30 million for active travel will do nothing to help if the trains and buses across Wales are constantly delayed, full to bursting, and put people off rather than encourage them on board. The latest bus journey figures show that 20 million fewer bus journeys are being taken in Wales. What radical ideas did your Government have in mind when it declared the climate emergency, and when will you be bringing them forward? Because other nations have, for example, banned single-use plastics, and yet all your Government can say is that it is committed to a ban. When will your Government, First Minister, be introducing a ban and stop just thinking about it?

It's difficult to pick out much sense in what I've just been asked, Llywydd. On the issue of the money for the Burns commission, the Burns commission has first call on the £1 billion that was originally set aside for the M4 relief road. Lord Burns, when he met me, as a former permanent secretary at the Treasury, made it clear that that did not mean that he expected to spend £1 billion. He wasn't aiming to spend £1 billion. What he knows is that if he needs £1 billion it will be there at his disposal. It doesn't mean it's an ambition for him to do so.

The climate emergency question linked to the M4 relief road suggests that irony has long been lost on the benches opposite. How does he on the one hand want to complain about not building an M4 relief road, and then complain that we’re not taking a climate emergency seriously? The two things simply cannot be held in the mind at the same time. We have published a whole series of other practical proposals that we will take as a Government to respond to the climate emergency. We will introduce 20 mph zones as standard in our urban areas and we will introduce regulations to tackle agricultural pollution in January next year. We are focused on those practical things that the Welsh Government can do, and we will deliver against them here in Wales.

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, which do you think represents a brighter future for Wales: Brexit or independence?

Well, it’s clearly not a choice that any sensible person would seek to make, Llywydd. The bright future for Wales lies in a strong Wales with an entrenched devolution settlement, taking domestic decisions here in our hands, in a strong United Kingdom and in a successful Europe. That’s what I believe the best future for Wales will be: Wales in the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom in the European Union.

As we saw over the summer, from Caernarfon to Merthyr, thousands are on the march in Wales, and on independence the tide is turning. And, you know, you risk, First Minister, being overtaken by events as history is accelerating. It’s happened, of course, on more than one occasion against the backdrop of Brexit. Over the summer you still said in one of your first ministerial videos that you wanted to leave the European Union on the best of terms. The shadow chancellor, who wanted to back remain, has been rebuked by Len McCluskey, Labour’s largest donor. Even your own health Minister says your party’s policy of being both 'leave' and 'remain' deserves ridicule. Do you?

Well, Llywydd, let me begin by saying that I understand the frustration and the anger that many people here in Wales feel at the current UK Government and at the way in which events since the referendum have unfolded. It’s no wonder, I think, that people feel let down. But I am clear in my mind that the answer to those feelings of frustration and anger is not independence. Surely, Llywydd, the answer that people ought to draw from the Brexit experience is that borders create divisions, they create divisions inside societies and between societies, that they damage economies and that they reduce protections. The power of the union, as people on this side of the Chamber understand, is a power that exists inside the union of the United Kingdom and inside the union of the European Union. That’s the message of the Labour movement, and that’s why we believe that the answer to the frustrations and the anger that people feel is to create a successful future for Wales as part of both of those wider set of arrangements. And that’s the position of the Welsh Labour Party. The Labour Party will offer people in the United Kingdom a chance to vote again—a call that he has made in this Chamber many, many times. A Labour Government will deliver that, and in a second referendum, the Welsh Labour Party will campaign to persuade people in Wales that our future is better off in the European Union.

There are 44 days now, of course, until Boris Johnson tries to force through a ‘no deal’ Brexit. Now, our clear preference, to prevent this from happening, would be to hold a people’s vote before an election, but if we have a general election instead, it will become the people’s vote by proxy, with a Tory 'no deal' on the ballot paper. Now, if this does happen, then it seems vitally important to me that there is a clear 'remain' option on the ballot paper too. Now, your Brexit Minister, the Counsel General, said in July that the Labour Party

'should be advocating remain in that manifesto rather than a referendum' and seeking a mandate to revoke on that basis. 

You didn't answer whether you disagreed with Vaughan Gething, but do you disagree with Jeremy Miles?

I've put the position of the Welsh Labour Party, Llywydd, and I put it again. I've put it in the Welsh Assembly, because I am responsible for the position of the Welsh Labour Party. In a general election, the position here in Wales will be clear: the Welsh Labour Party believes that our future is better secured inside the United Kingdom and we will say that loud and clear. You will argue to take Wales out of the United Kingdom and we will argue that Wales should remain in a United Kingdom that remains in the European Union. Both of those things are right for Wales. Only the Labour Party will argue for them both and I look forward to the chance to do exactly that.

Leader of the Brexit Party, Mark Reckless.

First Minister, 12 days ago, you made a calculated decision to allege that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had lied. How would you describe the statement

'We will deliver a relief road for the M4'?

Llywydd, I've dealt with the relief road question. I have it from a man who has stood on a number of manifestos for different parties and is so attached to the promises that he made that he was willing to betray them on the floor of the Assembly and to zig-zag across the floor here. So, I don't need to hear questions from him on that sort of issue because his own history simply illustrates how hollow those questions are.

I didn't accuse the Prime Minister of lying. I put him right on that the last time he said that. I pointed out that the official spokesperson of the Prime Minister had been put up to say something that documents which were then revealed in front of a Scottish court turned out to be untrue. I don't think it is wrong to point that out.

On the M4 relief road, we have rehearsed the arguments here. I came to my decision, I stand by that decision, it was the right decision to make. 

So, you stand by your decision. You said just now it's to do with the climate change emergency but you didn't say anything about that in your decision notice, did you? [Interruption.] The decision notice talked about the environment and the Gwent levels; it did not mention climate change. [Interruption.]

We need to hear the question. Can the question be heard in some silence, please? Mark Reckless.

I have always backed Brexit. I've never lied about it. Now, you used that word—at least that's what I recall you using, or the meaning of what you were saying—yet your party, you and almost everyone behind you, said that you would respect the referendum. Yet, now, your policy is to go to the European Union, if I understand it correctly, and negotiate a deal so you can come back here and campaign against it. And that deal you are looking to negotiate is even more of a Brexit in name only than what the Conservatives have been offering us.

It will be, frankly, an in/in referendum. It's very difficult to judge whether it's the Lib Dems or Plaid saying, 'Revoke, just ignore the referendum, we know best', or it's you forcing people through the charade of an in/in referendum that would be more of a betrayal of the people of Wales.

Could I just read the First Minister two statements? The first is from his predecessor, Carwyn Jones, from the foreword of 'Securing Wales' Future':

'A majority in Wales voted to leave the European Union...and the Welsh Government has been clear from the outset that this democratic decision must be respected.'

Then, the Counsel General, shortly before that, for the Government, said:

'The people of the UK voted to leave the European Union. I respect that decision and we will not work against the referendum result.'

First Minister, weren't they lies?

Llywydd, for two years and more, this Labour Government argued for a form of leaving the European Union that would have respected the result of the referendum, but would have protected jobs and economies here in Wales. He attacked those proposals time after time after time, describing them as he has again today as leaving the European Union in name only.

We put forward those proposals because, with Plaid Cymru in the aftermath of the referendum, we understood that people in Wales had voted to leave the European Union, but as Steffan Lewis, our colleague here said at the time, they never voted to take leave of their senses. And that meant that if we were to leave the European Union, it had to be done on terms and in a way that would have protected their futures, and that's what we tried to promote.

It became clear to us, particularly as a new leader of the Conservative Party was elected, that that possibility had simply evaporated—that no matter how hard we argued for it and no matter how cogent our position was, it was never going to make a difference to somebody who, as the Member here said, wasn't interested in the arguments. He's always been in favour of Brexit. Say what you like about it, demonstrate how harmful it will be, he'll be for it come what may.

So, we decided at that point that the decision should go back to the people. A Labour Government will deliver exactly that. There will be a credible 'leave' option on the ballot paper, so he will be able to go on campaigning to leave the European Union, misguided as I've always believed him to be. But, for those of us who believe that Wales's future is better off inside the European Union, there will be a second opportunity to put that to people, to make those arguments and to persuade people on the basis of everything that we have learnt in the three years since that referendum that that's where our future lies. I look forward to us being able to do just that. His argument, I think, will be exposed yet again for the ideologically driven, evidence free, careless-of-the-future set of proposals that it has always been.