The Government's Position on Brexit

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 24 September 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:36, 24 September 2019

Well, the Member, I'm sure, will want to congratulate the Labour Party on resolving this issue by putting that decision back in the hands of the people. All his problems of the House of Commons will evaporate, people will be able to vote on this again. Now I hear the Member shout at me for, I think, at least the dozenth time this afternoon, 'What about a general election?' And I say to him that I think a referendum is best addressed through a second referendum. A general election can be won on 35 per cent of the voting population. That does not seem to me to be a sound basis for overturning or readdressing an issue that, as he tells me week after week after week, elicited the largest number of people ever to vote on a subject. Better, I think, that we put that decision back in the hands of the people, in a second opportunity. He will have his opportunity to make his case—I know he will make it whenever he has the chance. But others will have an opportunity to make their cases as well. It's always been baffling to me, Llywydd, why Members on the floor of this Assembly are so allergic to the idea that people could be asked again for their view on the most important topic that faces us. My party is committed to that; I think democrats ought to be.