Over the last three and a half years, the Welsh Government has taken every opportunity to set out Welsh priorities for the UK's future relationship with the EU to the UK Government. We had sight of a draft text a few days before publication, and took part in a telephone conference a few hours before the UK Cabinet was expected to discuss it. The final text did not reflect any of the substantive points we made. This was despite the terms of reference of the Joint Ministerial Committee (European Negotiations), which commits the UK Government to seek to agree negotiating positions with the devolved Governments. The approach that the mandate sets out is one that puts the ideological pursuit of an absolute sovereignty—surely a fantasy in the world of today—above people's jobs and livelihoods. We've been clear that we cannot support such an approach, and that the UK Government has passed up an opportunity to speak on behalf of all the four Governments of the UK in the negotiations, which have started this week.