Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 16 October 2019.

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Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 2:36, 16 October 2019

Thank you, Minister. Obviously, the jobs that are involved are going to be important, but, again, in terms of these component parts of the work that's being put into the selling of arms, I think it would be good for the Welsh Government—well, it would be not just good, it would be thoroughly important for the Welsh Government—to do everything it can to make sure that that isn't an indirect way that we are funding that.

But finally, Minister, I'd like to turn to an issue that's closer to home, which is the Spanish state's jailing of the Catalan independence campaigners. It is unconscionable that political jailings are happening in Europe in 2019. Western countries have rightly criticised China for clamping down on protesters in Hong Kong, yet we have a European Union member state sending politicians to prison for delivering a legitimate, democratic mandate. Minister, will you join Plaid Cymru and, indeed, some of your own Labour backbenchers, in condemning Spain for their actions? And will you send a message of solidarity to the nine Catalan politicians and campaigners who are now in prison for taking actions that ought to be protected under the United Nations charter's enshrinement of the right to self-determination?