Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:29 pm on 2 December 2020.
Thank you, Joyce Watson. I think one of the things that really concerns me is the lack of engagement both from the Treasury in London, where I have tried to have meetings, and certainly, along with my Scottish and Northern Ireland counterparts, as soon as we realised the issue that this was going to bring, and they refused to engage with us; we've just been met with silence. And so, I then tried to get a meeting with the Secretary of State for Wales and his junior Minister. I managed to get that—after much persuasion on my part—the day before the comprehensive spending review. And I believed that the Secretary of State for Wales actually understood my concerns, and he did say he would go straight to the Treasury to discuss that for me. Unfortunately, the next day, we saw the CSR, a week ago, and the level of underfunding that we now have. But I will continue to pursue it. I am going to carry on fighting this, for our farmers and for our rural communities. My colleague Rebecca Evans, the Minister for Finance, has written to the Treasury on this subject; I have a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs inter-ministerial group meeting on Monday, where I will continue to pursue it.