10. Brexit Party Debate: UK Internal Market Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:33 pm on 16 September 2020.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 6:33, 16 September 2020

Diolch, Llywydd. I am moving my amendments today for the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party. These are amendments 6 and 7, just to clarify for the benefit of the, doubtless, many Members who may want to vote for them at the end of this debate.

Now, I broadly support the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill in that it does represent another step towards carrying out what the Welsh people actually voted for in 2016, which was for the UK to leave the European Union. We've had a lot of debates, of course, about Brexit over the past four years. This debate we are having today, though, touches on other important matters, such as what kind of UK emerges after Brexit. If I can presume to summarise the arguments of the main parties as I see them, Labour and Plaid Cymru seem fixated on the constitutional powers of the Welsh Government and this Parliament. They appear to be obsessed with any perceived attempt by the UK Government to undermine the devolution settlement—obsessed, I would say, almost to the point of paranoia—while the Conservatives appear to be more interested in ensuring smooth, unhindered trade for Welsh businesses across the UK after Brexit.

Now, I wonder which of those positions would the majority of ordinary people in Wales be more likely to sympathise with. We have heard some anguished speeches about this Bill from the left, and, of course, they are entitled to their opinions. But can we have an injection of reality here? The vast majority of people in Wales are not interested in the constitutional niceties of the devolution settlement, they just want a better quality of life. They don't care if disputes are settled by an office of the internal market or some other body. They don't care if clause 46 of some agreement or other is in danger of being breached, because, to be honest, they don't even know what clause 46 is. Apart from David Melding, who does? But people in Wales will care if Welsh jobs are lost because trade is disrupted because, for instance, the Welsh Government wants to veto an international trade treaty that the UK Prime Minister wants to sign.

People in Wales will care if business is lost by Welsh companies because they can't trade unhindered across the border with English companies. Can I point out, backing that point that was just made by Neil Hamilton—[Inaudible.]. This is the economic reality? If Jenny Rathbone, as we heard yesterday, wants to have tougher regulations in Wales on plastics than they have in England, then that is up to her, but is she willing to sacrifice Welsh business and Welsh jobs and the quality of life of people in Wales for that principle? Obviously, plastic is a problem, but it's not just a problem in Wales, is it? How different does she think regulations are going to be in England in any case? Most sensible people who do not have a constitutional fetish about these things would probably agree that the most sensible way forward after Brexit would be one common set of regulations throughout the UK, not four different ones. So, a message to Welsh Labour: stop being a bunch of political anoraks and wake up to the reality of what will affect normal people.

Welsh Labour and Plaid are also incensed that the UK Government may interfere in areas like health and education. This is rather laughable, since we have a health service that is shot to pieces and an education system that is plummeting downwards through the world rankings. This is hardly a sound basis for clamouring for more powers to come to this place. The reality is that more and more people see that devolution is failing Wales. More and more want an end to the real constitutional catastrophe, which is devolution itself. More and more people are expressing their desire to abolish the Welsh Parliament. My party wants to do that, too, although of course we want the democratic consent of the people of Wales in order to do so. In short, we want a referendum on whether or not devolution is still wanted by the people of Wales in a post-Brexit world, which is why I'm moving today's amendments. Diolch yn fawr iawn.