Five years ago, by a narrow margin, a majority of the people who cast a ballot in Wales and the UK as a whole voted to leave the European Union, and we've left. That's right, and that's the democratic outcome. But democracy is nuanced, it's not a sledgehammer. As well as a majority decision, it's about pluralism, tolerance and finding common ground, which is one of the reasons many of us argued for an exit deal that maintained the greatest possible access to the EU single market and continued participation in a customs union. To my mind, that would have been a more democratic outcome of the referendum, one that both sides of the argument could have lived with.

As it is, the Tories pursued a partisan, hard Brexit, turning it into this toxic wedge issue that continues to divide politicians, yes, but more importantly communities, families and friendship and the constitutional stability of the UK, which is sad and deeply irresponsible. For that reason alone, Boris Johnson's deal should be deemed a political and social failure. But already it's proving to be an economic failure, too. The other reason we argued for greater alignment with the EU was to prevent what we are seeing now—barriers to trade that Welsh businesses were told they wouldn't face, the massive increase in bureaucracy and non-tariff barriers, the difficulties faced by the arts and creative sector in touring in Europe, the immediate damage to our seafood industry, and the very obvious border in the Irish sea. These are not unexpected or teething problems, like the Tories would like us to believe; they are inherent and they are an inevitable consequence of the Tory Brexit. 

I mentioned Northern Ireland. We all, I hope, accept that we cannot have a hard border on the island of Ireland. So, any trade deal with the US or Australia, or any other country for that matter, necessarily means either a border in the Irish sea or throwing Welsh and UK farmers under the famous Brexit bus. There's no getting around that. The Australia deal shows the direction of travel. The Tories have plumped for the sea border and free trade over the UK's constitutional integrity and the future of Welsh farming.

I explained the Tories' hypocrisy on this issue recently, so I won't repeat that, but I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry when I watched the UK trade Minister defend it in Parliament and on the airwaves. In one breath, Liz Truss lauded the access our farmers would have to the new markets, like Vietnam. Next, she was admitting that there's virtually no trade in products like chicken because it's so far away. Well, who would have known it? Who would have known that Vietnam is a long way from the rest of Europe? Suddenly, she's seen that light.

Five years on from the referendum, my view is that the British public will not tolerate this destructive, divisive, dogmatic Tory Brexit for too long. I hope and I expect in five years' time that we'll be reflecting on Brexit from a position of a much closer customs and market alignment. That would be a much more sensible, practical and democratic way ahead, and it also actually might help save some of the businesses here and help us to actually have enough people to work in those industries. Thank you.