5. What discussions has the Counsel General had with opposition parties in relation to the Welsh Government’s position on Brexit? OAQ54434

The Welsh Government has been working tirelessly on a cross-party basis since 2016 to protect Wales’s interests. As a result, the National Assembly has passed motions that rule out a 'no deal' exit, support the UK remaining in the EU, and support a second referendum to achieve that aim.

Thank you, Counsel General, for that reply. Does he not recognise the potential dangers of using Wales as a political pawn in the games that he's playing with Plaid Cymru? There's a great deal of suspicion about the way in which the Welsh Labour Party is cosying up to Plaid Cymru in advance of the 2021 election, which I think they're anticipating losing and, therefore, are now looking for support from Plaid Cymru. He recently said that

'the UK is a voluntary association of nations' and that if Brexit goes ahead,

'any sensible government would have to reassess Wales's place in a changed UK', clearly doffing his cap in the direction of independence. The First Minister has recently said that Wales's support for the union's not unconditional, and, at the Welsh Labour conference this year, there was a fringe meeting called 'Labour for independence' and the former First Minister graced it with his presence and spoke at it. And Vaughan Roderick from the BBC said recently that fringe meeting would never have been allowed a few years ago, and Welsh Labour would not have accepted the invitation to a YesCymru meeting a couple of years ago. Will he commit Labour unambiguously to continuing within the United Kingdom and breaking off this dalliance with Plaid Cymru, which is giving an unnecessary credence to the possibility of independence? 

Well, I'm not sure where this fits in to discussions with the opposition parties. These are debates that all mature parties would expect to have in a devolved context. I've been absolutely categorical: I believe, the Welsh Government believes, that the best future for Wales is as part of a UK that is flourishing and reformed. The pressures that have come from Brexit have exposed fault lines in the UK constitution that my reply to Hefin David's question earlier attempted to draw out. I would just say to him that the biggest threat to the union is the kind of 'no deal' Brexit that he himself is an advocate of. He and others are taking a wrecking ball to the constitution, and those of us who have a much greater commitment to the future of Wales are seeking to do what we can to strengthen the constitution to deal with some of those consequences.