6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Departure from the European Union

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 23 June 2021.

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Photo of James Evans James Evans Conservative 5:36, 23 June 2021

Diolch, Llywydd. And not a single person opposite in Labour or Plaid Cymru has talked about the positives of Brexit, and it's a shame. The Minister talks about undermining democracy. I'll take no lectures from Labour about undermining democracy, because that's what your party have been doing for the last five years.

Five years ago today, the people of Wales and the United Kingdom, they stood up to the elites, the academics, the champagne socialists and the doomsday predictors, both in the UK and across the world. And, as my Conservative colleagues have said, the people rose up against the establishment and voted to leave the European Union. And, as has been said, it was the biggest democratic vote in our country's history. And Mr Rhys ab Owen talks about respect—it's a shame Plaid Cymru cannot respect the will of the British and Welsh people. As we've seen, project fear knew no bounds, because the doomsday forecasters were all around. We were told we would have no food, no medicine, no imports, no exports and our stock markets would crash. And the people who sit in this place pushed that scaremongering agenda, and, five years on, those people who predicted doom were proven wrong. Many who sat in here, and across the UK, spent the last five years trying to stop democracy and stop the will of the people of Wales and the United Kingdom who voted to leave. Thankfully, in 2019, as my colleague Darren Miller has said, the British people endorsed the Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, overwhelmingly voting Conservative for the first time right across Wales to get Brexit done, and, by God, we got Brexit done.

Labour talk about centralisation and a power grab. This Conservative Government in Westminster wants to level up the whole of Wales, and the problem is that the Conservatives don't trust this Labour Welsh Government to level up the whole of Wales. It'll be focused in your Labour heartlands, abandoning people and their communities for years to come.

I myself campaigned to leave the European Union, along with many others on these Conservative benches, and wider, who believed we were better off outside the European Union. As my colleague Gareth Davies has said, his constituents said the EU held them back. So, we went out there, we pounded the streets with a positive message of Wales outside the European Union, taking control, as Sam Rowlands has said, of our borders, our money and our laws, free from the shackles of unelected commissioners who are accountable to no-one. We on these Conservative benches, as mentioned by Mark Isherwood, look forward to a global vision for Wales as part of a global United Kingdom, grasping those opportunities, reaching into emerging markets and using our influence for good in an ever-changing world.

As has been mentioned by my colleagues, the British Government has launched an incredible trade department, which has negotiated roll-over deals with countries from around the world. And we secured that deal with the EU, which many of you in this Chamber and wider said was not possible, and that secured billions of pounds to our economy. But do we see any praise from the politicians opposite? No, we don't.

Delyth Jewell spoke of an opportunity lost. And let's remind ourselves: from Grenada to Guatemala, Japan to Jordan, Canada to Cameroon, global Great Britain is well and truly back, helping our businesses to export to emerging markets all over the world and growing our economy. Now it's the time for everyone, regardless of your views, to accept the result and embrace the change and the positive benefits that Brexit can bring to Wales. [Interruption.] It's a shame that Joyce Watson is still chuntering on about this being a Tory Brexit. Well, I will remind you, Joyce, this isn't a Tory Brexit, this is what the people of Wales voted for. Alun Davies talks of dishonesty—this comes from a man that no more than half an hour ago said the Welsh Labour Government were going to invest in his community and haven't. So, I won't talk about dishonesty from Alun Davies. I think you need to look a bit closer—[Interruption.] I think you should look a bit closer to home, Mr Davies, if you want to look at dishonesty. Welsh politicians now have wide—[Interruption.] Oh, Alun, give it a rest. Welsh politicians now—