Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:26 pm on 14 January 2020.
Well, I hope I'm not striking a tone of scepticism, as I have indicated to Darren Millar previously. We stand ready as a Government to engage constructively with the UK Government on this, and I've outlined what that means from our point of view, and part of that involves the crucial aspect of respecting the roles that different Governments in the UK have, the different powers and responsibilities the different Governments in the UK have, and I look forward to having that confirmed by the UK Government in detail. As I say, we've had positive indications but now, I think, we would all see as the time to move beyond those broad positive indications to a detailed discussion of what the UK Government are proposing and a commitment to that basic principle.
He invites me, I think, once again, to enumerate the ways in which these funds have benefited the people of Wales. We have significant growth in employment and drops in unemployment, increases in skills levels, and drops in economic inactivity in those regions that have been able to benefit from European Union funding. We've created thousands of new jobs through that, supported thousands of businesses, helped tens of thousands of people into employment. He may not know who those people are, but I have plenty of people in my constituency who will come to my surgeries and tell me that they have benefited from apprenticeships and other skills programmes, all of which have been funded by the European Union.
I'll resist the temptation to re-fight the referendum, which he seems to want to do. All I will say is that we think there are imaginative and constructive ways of ensuring that regional funding in Wales into the future continues to deliver the benefits that Wales has accrued from this for the last 20 years. We have an imaginative and creative approach to designing those schemes. I think what we would like to see now is the confirmation that the plans that the UK Government have for the shared prosperity fund will enable us, effectively, to make those proposals real. I think that is in the best interests of the people of Wales.