Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 22 September 2020.
Llywydd, I thank Jenny Rathbone for that very important supplementary question. I was very glad that the Welsh Government was able to commission from the OECD an independent report drawing on best international evidence to help us with the important job of designing future policies and future structures for regional economic development. The report does, absolutely, put a focus on skill development. It's really important that we are able to invest in the people that we have here in Wales, so that they are ready to be able to take advantage of employment opportunities when they come.
The Member, Llywydd, raises, I think, an extraordinary possibility. When I first saw the internal market Bill, that was bad enough when I thought that what the UK Government was planning was to take all the money that had come to Wales from European sources and hug it to itself, and eek it back out according to ideas that they may have, rather than the ideas that people in Wales may have for what is necessary here. But the idea that they would seek to top-slice budgets that are available to this Senedd, to deploy in the way that we choose, in order to run schemes of their own is, I think, an idea even beyond what we originally thought they may have in mind. To do so would make a mockery of the words that the Prime Minister uses about respecting devolution, and being a devolutionist himself. Let us hope that there is a UK Government Minister who is willing to put on record the fact that they intend no such thing.