3. What discussions about Brexit has the First Minister had with the UK Prime Minister over the last month? OAQ54536

Llywydd, no such discussions have taken place with the Prime Minister over the last month.

Does the First Minister share my concern that that shows a complete contempt for the people of Wales, for this institution and the Government that springs from it? Doesn't it show that the current Prime Minister is interested in England and in nowhere else? We know that the Conservative Party membership, if we believe the opinion polls, care more about Brexit than the union. And indeed, an essay question, I'm told, in Cardiff University now will soon be, 'Is the Conservative and Unionist Party still both of those things?' So, does he not agree that it shows contempt for this Government that the Prime Minister is not engaged with it? And does he also agree that the current constitutional settlement is broken? There needs to be a new relationship between the nations of these isles. We need to make sure that there is better and more equal respect, so that a Prime Minister of the UK cannot ignore the people of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the future.

Llywydd, I agree with Carwyn Jones that it is surely remarkable, now having been in office for a number of months, that the Prime Minister has failed to call a single meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee plenary. When Mrs May was Prime Minister, she held such a plenary here in Cardiff. The new Prime Minister, having embarked on his imperial tour of England, Wales and Scotland then, has never been seen since.

The point that the Member makes about the need for new relationships—better, equal, respectful relationships—lies at the heart of a document that the Welsh Government has published, and which I will make a statement on later this afternoon. Because that seeks to entrench those arrangements so that they are not at the whim of an individual, so that one Prime Minister respects them and the next Prime Minister takes no notice of them.

Given the state of our relationships with the European Union, given the fact that there are clear and significant devolved responsibilities at stake in those discussions, it is utterly remarkable that the JMC has not been called together, despite requests from me and from Nicola Sturgeon that that should take place. And it is, I'm sorry to say, a sign of the way in which the current Prime Minister is prepared to neglect fundamentally important responsibilities about the future of the United Kingdom, while he pursues instead the various chimeras that he has put in front of us in relation to a future arrangement with the European Union.

I heard the references to contempt. What about contempt for the views of the people of Wales who voted to leave the European Union and the neglect that your Government has shown to supporting the UK Government's efforts to deliver on the outcome of that referendum by supporting the UK Prime Minister in delivering Brexit by 31 October? And I have to say, what sort of advice would you be able to give the UK Prime Minister about Brexit, given that your party has got at least three positions on the matter? On the one hand, you've got Jeremy Corbyn's position, which seems to be, 'Let's have a general election, then a referendum, and I'll tell you how to campaign once we've gotten there.' On the other hand, you've got the Welsh Government's position, which seems to be, at least it was last week, that there should be a referendum and then you will campaign to remain, no matter what sort of deal a Jeremy Corbyn Government might bring back from Brussels. And you also, of course, have a division within the Welsh Government, with Jeremy, on your front bench—the other Jeremy, if we can call him that—your Brexit Minister, who has made it quite clear that his view is that there ought to be a referendum before the next general election. So, what position does the Welsh Government and the Labour Party actually have on Brexit, and how on earth do you think that that's useful in any sort of conversation you might have with the UK Prime Minister?

Llywydd, for months and months after the referendum of 2016, the Welsh Government worked with Plaid Cymru here to put forward a way of leaving the European Union that would have defended our economy and jobs. We published it in 'Securing Wales' Future'. It was predicated on leaving the European Union, but it showed a way of doing it that would not have sacrificed Welsh jobs, Welsh firms and Welsh communities. For month after month, we attempted to persuade the UK Government to agree with that prospectus, and it was only when it became completely clear that there was no chance at all of persuading the UK Government of a form of Brexit that would have defended Welsh interests that we decided that it was no longer possible to go on credibly advocating for that position.

The way in which we respect people who voted to leave the European Union—and it is very important to respect people who take a different point of view on this most divisive issue—the way that we respect those people's view is to say that the time has come when the decision should go back into their hands and the hands of other citizens. There is nothing disrespectful in a democracy about saying to people that we would like them to have the opportunity to resolve this highly divisive matter. And our policy as a Welsh Government has been clear since the early summer: the decision should go back into the hands of citizens. When that chance comes, the Welsh Government will campaign to remain. And we do that as well out of respect for people who take a different view from us, because we have come to the conclusion, from everything that we have seen, that there is no deal better than the deal we have now, which is the deal we have through membership of the European Union. That is the best way in which Welsh families and Welsh futures can be best fashioned. We will make that case, and we will make it in a way that is respectful, both of people who want to remain in the European Union and people who take a different view. But you don't respect people by not telling them the honest position that you have come to, and everything that I have seen leads me to that conclusion—difficult as it can be in some places, where people don't agree, but I'm not prepared to go out and say to people in Wales anything other than the truth as I see it. Other people will have other truths, and a referendum will allow them to express their view as well. That's why we have reached the position we have, and I think it is respectful of all views that exist on this matter.