Devolution first as Senedd refuses to back Brexit deal
ALL three devolved Governments have voted against backing Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
The Senedd followed Stormont and Holyrood in saying it could not back the UK Government’s plan. Fifteen AMs backed the plan yesterday while 35 voted against. There were no abstentions.
The Presiding Officer, Elin Jones, said the decision would be “communicated urgently” to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
When the UK Parliament wants to pass a law which covers a devolved issue convention requires it to receive the consent of the devolved administration before it can pass it – so-called Legislative Consent Motions.
The Sewel Convention says the UK Government should not go ahead with a law if devolved administrations have not backed it. This is the first
time the rejection by all three has ever happened in the 20 years of devolution and one expert last night called it a “worrying sign”.
The refusal will not stop the Withdrawal Agreement Bill becoming law but there are warnings that ignoring the concerns is dangerous to the continuation of the union.
Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly voted against giving their consent on Monday and MSPs have also done so.
In March last year the Institute for Government carried out research about consent motions and found that across the three devolved legislatures there had been 352 legislative consent motions.
At that point there were just 10 occasions when consent has been denied in part or in full in individual administrations. Combined, this vote will be the 13th denial of consent.
Akash Paun, from the think-tank, said: “Legally it’s true that the UK Parliament is sovereign so if there’s a majority in support of the legislation, which there is in Westminster, then the absence of consent doesn’t actually create any legal obstacles but it’s not to say it doesn’t matter.
“The Sewel Convention is a very important pillar of the relationship between Westminster and the devolved administrations since 1999.
“For the most part it’s operated effectively and has facilitated negotiations and compromise on a number of bills.
“For it to crumble or fall away, I think, is a very worrying sign in terms of the health of the union and intergovernmental relationships. This is at a time where Brexit in particular is opposed by many at a devolved level but that Brexit is going to require close intergovernmental collaboration and working between as we go through the process.
“The Governments are going to have to work together and more closely than they have ever done before.
“It’s a worrying sign that this important convention seems to be crumbling.”
Wales’ Brexit Minister, Jeremy Miles, has said that the negotiations with the EU are of “vital importance to Wales”.
“It will determine the basis of our future trade, and our broader relationship with the EU, for decades to come. The stakes could not be higher.
“The evidence is clear that the further the UK moves away from economic integration with the EU the greater the economic damage. The EU has been and will continue to be our most important trading partner and many businesses depend on integrated supply chains across the EU, which require frictionless trade.
“Given the overwhelming importance of the EU to our economy the UK must prioritise continued barrier-free access to these markets over trade arrangements with other countries.”
Mr Miles said the Welsh Government would continue to challenge anything which “prioritises the ‘freedom’ of the UK to diverge from EU regulatory standards”.
He said: “We reject a vision of Britain where the economy is based on a low-wage, low job security, low regulation model, which would lead to growing inequality. We need a strong, innovative outward-looking UK economy underpinned by mutual respect for the responsibilities of all governments of the union.”
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay has written to Mr Miles and said the UK Government will work to address concerns but said it would not stop them taking the bill through the Commons.
In a debate in the Senedd yesterday First Minister Mark Drakeford said this was “probably the most important piece of Westminster legislation we have had to consider in the 20-year history of the Senedd”.
He said: “Let me be clear about what this debate is not about. It is not about blocking Brexit, it is not about frustrating the bill. It is about the form and not the fact of Brexit. It is about improving and not derailing the bill.
“The question that is in front of us, though, is this: does this bill as currently set out meet the interests of Wales? And the answer that this Government suggests to you this afternoon, the clear conclusion that we have come to is that we cannot ask you to give consent to the bill because the interests of Wales are emphatically not met by it.
“A mandate for Brexit is not a mandate for bad legislation and, as far as Wales is concerned, this legislation remains very bad indeed. It will undermine our economy in damaging ways and, more importantly, Llywydd, ways that could be avoided.
“The legislation takes us backwards and not forwards.”
Brexit Party leader in the Assembly Mark Reckless criticised the decision not to back it and said the motion “effectively maintained Welsh Government opposition to Brexit”.
A spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives said: “We see separatist parties such as Plaid Cymru leading Welsh Labour to join them in rejecting democracy and trying to overturn a mandate given to the UK Government to get Brexit done.
“We leave the EU in 10 days’ time, and that will be the catalyst to unleash Wales’ potential, and that of the entire United Kingdom.
“When this is done, and now that the obstacles placed in the way by other parties have been removed, we will have new post-Brexit freedoms that will transform all nations of the UK for the better.”