Plaid Cymru is proud to co-submit this motion, and agrees with the Welsh Government that this Parliament needs to send a clear message today that we oppose these efforts to limit the rights of the people of Wales and to undermine our efforts to ensure fairness, equality and justice for the people of our nation. We further agree that serious constitutional issues arise as a result of the UK Government's proposal to reform the Human Rights Act.

This motion today refers to a number of pieces of legislation that have been passed or are in the pipeline that need to be considered together, because in considering them together and the way in which they come together, that's how we see the bigger picture, the wider agenda, the very concerning direction of travel, which is very dangerous and characterises the reactionary Government of Boris Johnson. There is no doubt at all that, together, they represent a deliberate attempt to weaken the rights of the people of Wales and the people of the wider United Kingdom.

The current UK Government threatens and limits rights and undermines equality and justice, and the legislative proposals that are mentioned in the motion before us today are clear proof of that. How can one justify, how can any Member of Parliament not oppose plans that have been called a very real threat to the way in which citizens can challenge those in power? How on earth, as we watch the heroism of the people of Ukraine, those opposing the illegal war of autocrat Putin and his authoritarian regime, literally fighting on the streets, literally sacrificing their lives and their freedoms for the principle that people should have the right to protest, the right to stand up to power and the right to justice?

We have already discussed in this place how the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 will undermine the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, how it will weaken defences for people who are defenceless. The Government's own consultation document on the reform of the Human Rights Act notes quite clearly that reforming the Act should lead to an increase in expulsions. This is an ideology that is entirely contrary to the will of the majority of the people of Wales, in light of what they see and the horrors suffered by the people of Ukraine and others across the world suffering persecution. How, as we remember our own history, the protests, the fight for rights that led ultimately to ensuring that the people of Wales had a stronger voice and more powers over our own lives, which ensured the establishment of our own Parliament?