Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to reply to this debate. It is timely because it places the implications of the UK’s departure from the EU under the spotlight, along with the possible outcomes of trusting in a Conservative Government led by Boris Johnson to undertake that process.

The Welsh Government supports the original motion to a great extent. It reflects the views of the majority of Members of the Senedd that the UK should remain a member of the EU and that principle under which the NHS was established, namely that services should be free at the point of delivery, should be put at risk.

We also agree that the current constitutional settlement is entirely inadequate to cope with the future challenges of a future outside the European Union. We expressed our views on this quite clearly in our policy documents, 'Brexit and Devolution' and 'Reforming our Union'. If we don’t continue with our membership of the European Union, then there is a risk that the line between international negotiations and those areas where competence is devolved will be crossed.

We have staged a number of debates on Brexit in this Chamber, but, despite that, we still hear from those who want to get Brexit done or a clean-break Brexit, calls which are entirely harmful to the interests of Wales. The damage caused if the UK were to depart the European Union was highlighted once again in the short and the long term by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research just last week. They came to the conclusion, just as Welsh Government economists have done, that the benefits of negotiating free trade deals with non-EU members are very small. On the other hand, the damage of leaving the customs union and the single market of the European Union would be significant and would remain for many years.