Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 19 October 2021.
Well, Llywydd, I listened carefully to what the Member said in his first contribution on the floor of the Senedd this afternoon. I don't think using terms like 'insulting' is consistent with what he said earlier about the need to conduct public discourse on the basis of mutual respect and trust. I do not come to my conclusions on the basis of wishing to insult anybody; I come to my conclusions because I believe the answers that people in Wales need will be better provided, they will get better answers, if there is a Welsh focus within a UK inquiry. Because I don't believe that you can make proper sense of the many decisions that were made here in Wales without understanding the relationship between those decisions and the wider context within which they were made.
Our position remains as it has been for many weeks. Provided we get the assurances that we are looking for from the UK Government that there will be that focus on decisions here in Wales, that people in Wales will have answers to their questions within the UK inquiry, then I think that will give them better answers. If we don't get those assurances, if we're not certain that we will get the focus on the Welsh experience that we need, then that will give us pause to think again.