6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Free ports

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:35 pm on 8 February 2023.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:35, 8 February 2023

Thank you for giving way so early in your contribution. I just wanted to pick up on the issue of cross-party support. As you know, there are Members like myself, David Rees and others, who have spoken very much in favour of developing the potential of these. I think the challenge here is that you can't get away from the fact that there are some real difficulties with the principle of free ports and everything that comes with them, and the impact of that on other areas. There are disadvantages to free ports as well. So, whilst we support strongly what we can now get out of this and want to work with you on this, don't mistake that for cross-party support for the idea of free ports, per se. It is something that your party is firmly behind; I would say that there's a more strategic way that we could do the same thing.