Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Like Mark Reckless, I welcome those parts of the internal market Bill that repatriate powers from the EU to Westminster and to the devolved Parliaments. Like him, I've been fighting all my political life to see this objective achieved, ever since I first became a parliamentary candidate back in 1973. But I do oppose those parts of the Bill that grant further powers to this institution and to the other devolved institutions in the United Kingdom. As Darren Millar said in his speech yesterday, this Bill grants scores of new powers to the Senedd, to the Scottish Parliament and to Northern Ireland as well. And, as Mark Reckless said, devolution is described as a process, not an event, and I see, therefore, the Conservative Government as being complicit in that process, which, as Mark Reckless said, threatens to break up, ultimately, the United Kingdom. Because there can be little doubt, certainly as far as Scotland is concerned, that the devolution process has done nothing to assuage the desire for independence—actually, it's fed the beast. And it may well be that, in due course, Scotland detaches itself from the rest of the United Kingdom, which I think would be a shame. Welsh nationalists have not been anything like as successful as the Scottish nationalists, but nevertheless, the same prospect would threaten Wales very much indeed.

I believe that Wales does very badly out of devolution and that's why I've modified my view of the value of this place in the four and a half years that I've been here. In the 20 years of devolution, Wales has gone backwards relative to the rest of the United Kingdom. The average income in Wales, as we know, is only 75 per cent of the UK average. So, whatever hopes people had at the time that the devolution settlement was agreed, they've certainly not been fulfilled.

I find it remarkable that the Welsh Government is so opposed to the devolution of powers from Brussels to Westminster, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. They seem now to be terribly exercised by the prospect of the United Kingdom exercising powers in relation to the matters that are going to be repatriated, whereas they weren't bothered at all about those powers being exercised by people who we can hardly name, let alone control, in Brussels. After all, under qualified majority voting, the UK only has 8 per cent of the votes in the Council of Ministers, one commissioner out of 27 and 10 per cent of the votes in the European Parliament. Whatever view you take of that arithmetic, it's bound to lead to a massive increase in democracy and accountability in relation to a substantial area of laws that are made by which we are all governed.

But, of course, the United Kingdom single market is vastly more important to Wales than the EU single market ever was. After all, 60 per cent of Welsh exports go to England and England constitutes 84 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom. If there were any prospect of Balkanisation of the United Kingdom market, the big loser out of this would be Wales and certainly not England. That's why it's so important that the principles of mutual recognition and non-discrimination, which this Bill contains, should pass, because they actually guarantee the access of Wales to the United Kingdom market, which, if it were denied, would be an absolute disaster for the Welsh economy.

Now, Jeremy Miles took a rather jaundiced view of this and has described it as the starting gun for a race to the bottom, undermining high standards that we currently enjoy in terms of food standards, animal welfare and environment. But, like Mark Reckless, I don't see why the Government should deprive consumers of the right to choose. Let them decide what standards they want to observe. After all, there are a lot of people who think that organic food is best for us, and they're entitled to their opinion, but there shouldn't be a governmental decision as to whether that should be imposed upon everybody else. And so, therefore, I think it's up to us as individuals to decide for ourselves what we think is best and not have the Government do it for us. But, of course, the first instinct of the Welsh Government is to regulate, restrict and to nanny.

The state aid provisions have also been controversial in this Bill, but, of course, England subsidises Wales to a massive extent. In fact, it's the three regions of London, the south-east and eastern England that subsidise every other region and nation in the United Kingdom. The Welsh Government spends £18 billion a year, £14.7 billion of that comes from Westminster, or Whitehall, because we raise only just over £2 billion a year in income tax revenue in Wales and just over £1 billion on the other devolved taxes. That amounts to £4,500 per head of population in Wales. It's not surprising, therefore, that the UK Government has come to the conclusion that he who pays the piper should call the tune. And it would be, I think, very, very damaging to the future of the union if there were any other system than that which is proposed as a result of this Bill. It's just inconceivable that when so much English taxpayer subsidy flows to Wales, the English taxpayer would be prepared to put up with a system whereby their money could be used by the Welsh Government to undercut English companies and operate on what might be described as unfair competition. I remember when this happened in 2014—