A botched Brexit would wreck Wales
CARWYN Jones is at the forefront of battle for the best type of Brexit – and the debate is not just with the UK Government but within the Labour party.
The First Minister has put his head above the parapet and argued that the UK does not have to “leave the EU and leave one of the world’s biggest markets at the same time”.
He sees Norway as providing a model for how a country can be outside the EU but fully plugged into the single market.
Staying within the single market is an idea that appals many who were at the forefront of the Leave campaign.
The pressure group Leave Means Leave is fighting for a “clean Brexit” which it argues means quitting the single market, the customs union and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Its board includes Clwyd West Conservative MP and former Brexit minister David Jones and among its Tory supporters are former Welsh Secretary John Redwood and Monmouth MP David Davies.
But it is not just Conservatives who object to staying in the single market.
Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner said: “To adopt the Norwegian situation would be to become a vassal state, because you actually end up paying money into the EU budget but you have less control over the regulations than you do now with a seat round the table.”
Caroline Flint, a Labour exEurope minister, claimed that “those who aim to keep us in the single market know full well that this is EU membership in all but name”.
People in the Conservative party are marked out as to whether they backed Leave or Remain. There is the clear potential for similar divisions to open in Labour over whether people support the UK’s continuing full participation in the single market.
Divisive questions should not be ducked. A botched Brexit would be calamitous for Welsh manufacturing and agriculture and seeking the softest possible landing does not constitute a reversal of the referendum result and a betrayal of democracy.
Former Foreign Secretary, Welsh Secretary and Tory leader William Hague is hardly considered an ardent europhile but he has suggested that continuing membership of the European Economic Area (which would guarantee single market access) for two years while a final deal is thrashed out is an idea worth considering.
First Minister Mr Jones has backed such an approach to one of the most important periods of transition we will ever face, saying: “Why jump off a cliff when you can walk over a bridge?”
Mr Jones should be more than one of Wales’ highest profile commentators. Whitehall should ensure Welsh Government ministers are able to inform the negotiation process and the planning for how the UK will work in its postBrexit future.
The occasional meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee is not good enough. Wales has too much to lose for voices not to be heard. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%