Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 22 January 2020.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 2:55, 22 January 2020

Actually, what we've seen from the Welsh Labour Government is document after document with prophecies of doom. Of course, your pessimism around Brexit is completely out of proportion with reality. Where we Conservatives, as set out in our manifesto and other documents, see opportunity and long-term prosperity outside the European Union, I'm afraid that you see short-sighted gloom, and all you seem to be doing is trying to stoke fear and scaremongering. It's like you want Wales to fail in order that you can celebrate that your Nostradamus-type prophecies have come true. But we see a future where businesses in Wales will be able to export goods around the world in a competitive way and be competitive in those markets that the EU has currently blocked off.

And, of course, we'll have a fair immigration system—an immigration system that works for the whole of the United Kingdom, which is fair, which will work for businesses and work for Wales, but also one that is fair to people no matter where in the world they come from, whether that's in the EU or outside of the EU. I, for one, am optimistic. I'm excited about the opportunities that Brexit has to bring.

I know that you don't like to talk about those opportunities, and you don't like to talk about those benefits, but will you at least acknowledge that there are some opportunities, particularly from this new immigration system that we will have, which will be a points-based system that is fair to everybody around the world, where people can come and live and work in Wales, where they can bring a benefit to those communities in which they will live and to Wales as a nation?