Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 3 May 2022.
Well, Llywydd, Alun Davies makes a series of really important points there. BP profits have more than doubled in the last three months. Because of the impact of rising gas and oil prices, energy supply companies are making additional profits of £745 every single second. Just imagine that. The Prime Minister says they've got to keep all that money because they need to invest in the future of the industry. But what is BP actually doing? As Alun Davies said, it is buying back shares and it is paying down debt. It's not doing any of the things that the Prime Minister says it needs to do, and that money could be used to help those families who are struggling day in, day out. In the time that I have taken just to answer the question so far, Llywydd, that would be tens of families in Wales who would be helped with their bills.
And as far as the other points that the Member made, the leader of the opposition entirely misunderstood the point that he was making—the 6 per cent rise in food bills in this country is due entirely to the impact of leaving the European Union. The impact of us leaving the European Union is not to drive up prices in Europe by 12 per cent. It's nonsensical to even suggest it. The report to which my friend was referring is a report that says that prices in this country are up by 6 per cent because of the additional costs involved in food production as a result of leaving the European Union. It may not be comfortable for the Member to understand that, but that is what the report last week demonstrated.
And as to border control posts—the third point that the Member raised—surely that is one of the most shocking of decisions. Now, the agriculture industry—a topic that the leader of the opposition told us last week was a topic where he did know what he was talking about—is one in which producers here in Wales now face competition from producers outside with no checks at all on those goods coming into the European Union, whereas a farmer in Wales seeking to export to the European Union has to face all the additional barriers that come with leaving the European Union. It's an extraordinary thing for a UK Government to do: to have claimed that they are taking back control only to find that they're not taking back control at all.