Members of Senedd back symbolic motion not to consent to deal due to lack of scrutiny time

MEMBERS of the Senedd backed a Welsh Government motion not to grant legislative consent to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal because they hadn’t been given enough time to scrutinise it properly.

The motion has only symbolic value because the Senedd has no power to stop the deal being ratified.

First Minister Mark Drakeford condemned the inability to scrutinise the UK Government’s Bill to approve the deal as indicative of the “deeply disturbing state of our internal constitutional arrangements”.

He said: “This is the most important treaty which the UK will have signed for nearly 50 years. It is simply outrageous that, in a democracy where the legislature is supposed to hold the executive to account, the bill to implement the treaty is being rammed through both Houses of Parliament in one day. The House of Commons will have the equivalent of 15 seconds to debate each page of the draft treaty.

“Now, when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister… the European Communities (Amendment) Bill 1986 was introduced into the House of Commons in April, and did not gain Royal Assent until November of that year, and Mrs Thatcher had a Commons majority of 140.

“Of course, the opposition here will say that all this is driven by the lack of time, as if the Conservative Party had not had four and a half years to deliver a deal that we were told would be the easiest ever struck, or that the Prime Minister will be threatening us with the consequences, if the future relationship bill is not enacted before tomorrow evening. But all of that is simply wrong. The EU is bringing the treaty into provisional application, and the European Parliament will

have several weeks to understand the implications of a text that is about the same length as the Bible. Why are we not able to do the same? How has taking back control collapsed so quickly into having no parliamentary control at all?”

Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies said: “Members will be aware that since the outcome of the referendum back in 2016 I’ve always advocated that we should leave the European Union with a deal, as it was imperative in order to protect businesses, livelihoods and jobs. I’m therefore delighted that the UK Government has now secured a free trade agreement with the EU—a deal that many said would be impossible. It wasn’t long ago that the doomsayers were predicting that securing a deal in 10 to 11 months, especially in the middle of a pandemic, was impossible. Well, how wrong they were.”

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price questioned Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to whip his MPs into voting for the deal, saying: “I realise the difficulty that Labour Members will feel in following a different line to their leader at Westminster, but we have a Prime Minister who cynically changed his position on Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. The last thing we need is a leader of the opposition who does the same.

“Which of Starmer’s six tests has this deal met? Does it prevent a race to the bottom? It enables it. Does it protect national security? It casts us adrift from Europol. Does it deliver the exact same benefits as the single market and customs union? It rips us out of both and leaves our businesses in manufacturing and food, our farmers and, yes, our fishermen and women too, wrapped in red, white and blue tape that will choke them.”

All the amendments from opposition parties were defeated, and the government’s motion was passed by 28 votes to 24 with no abstentions.