Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 13 July 2022.
There is no vacancy in the First Minister's office, and there won't be for the foreseeable future. Look, when it comes to the reality of our position, I have indicated there's been a reduction in trade, and Wales has a greater amount of trade compared to other nations within Britain with the EU, so it's a bigger challenge for us. And I am engaged in some of the contradictory and unhelpful policy agendas within the UK Government on borders and our continued trade, and it's important. I want to see our current position work as well as possible. I would have preferred it—and it's a matter of public record—if we had not left the European Union, but people in Wales, as within the rest of the UK, voted to leave, and we have to try to address that with the least amount of harm possible, and where there are opportunities to try to take those, it will require some honesty from us about what that would mean. Whilst we have articles of faith at a UK Government level on what we can't do, that does create a real challenge for us, but I hope that there will be an attack of common sense and economic common sense around what sort of relationship we should have with the European Union, because that in itself would unlock some of the challenges that we know that we face today.