3. Statement by the First Minister: The final report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:13 pm on 30 January 2024.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:13, 30 January 2024

I should say, just for the record, Llywydd, that it was the Government who appointed all members of the commission. Political parties put forward names, and then the Government appointed all members, including Leanne Wood, who represented Plaid Cymru, and I know played a very, very active part in those community events and making sure that the conversations that informed the report were as lively as you would want to make them. 

I agree that there is urgency in the recommendations of the report. They're particularly urgent for someone like me who believes that Wales's future is better off in the United Kingdom. Because I want to see a United Kingdom that people in Wales would want to belong to, that they would see the advantages of it, that they would see that our future is better linked with the future of other people who live in England and in Scotland in common causes. I think the debate that lies behind the report shows how urgent it is to go on building that case and making it convincing. 

The report does indeed say that independence is a viable option, but in some ways that's not the real question, is it? It's not whether it's viable, it's whether it's desirable. And I am very clear, the reason I don't believe in independence is because I don't think it's desirable for Wales. I don't believe in building new barriers. I don't believe in creating new borders when borders don't exist. There is so much that links working people in Wales with working people in other parts of the United Kingdom, and that is more important, I think, as a building block for that successful future that we want to see. 

The thing that surprised me the most in what the leader of Plaid Cymru said is that, in this instance alone, he doesn't appear to be paying attention to discussions within the Labour Party, which preoccupy him so often, because had he been listening carefully he would have seen that these debates are very lively inside the Labour Party and always have been. 

I want to see the report as the basis for further discussion and debate. I want to find ways in which we can continue to draw on the expertise and the experience of those people who've been part of the journey that led to the report. And we'll work as a Government to find ways of making that happen. I myself look forward to being part of all of those debates. I sometimes say, when people ask me about ceasing to be First Minister, that, in the words of Tony Benn, I'll be stepping down from this job in order to spend more time in politics. [Laughter.] And in that case, that will give me scope to make this a part of what I will continue to be interested in for the future.