Missing opportunity to shape EU debate, Tory leader claims
Wales is missing an opportunity to shape the EU debate, the Welsh Conservative leader has claimed.
Andrew RT Davies accused Labour and Plaid Cymru of "arrogantly" refusing to accept "their world view isn't shared" by the majority which backed Brexit. He called for a reassessment of how to spend a remaining £1bn of EU structural funding by 2020, claiming Labour had failed to make a success of past aid. Mr Davies also called for a more "tailored" system of farming support. Writing for the BrexitCentral.com website, the Welsh Conservative leader claimed Labour was in "a mess of its own making" with conflicting views on single market access, and whether the public should be asked to vote again on the terms of Brexit. "The vast majority of the public just want us to get on with making a success of our new relationship with the EU," Mr Davies wrote. "Unfortunately, whilst my party has moved on pragmatically into the post-referendum era, not everyone is ready." On the subject of regional aid, Mr Davies said: "Support for Brexit was at its strongest in areas which have received the most in EU funds. "That's not ironic, it's a judgement of Welsh Labour's failure to make a success of three successive rounds of structural funding." On farming support, he said: "Whilst (the) CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] might have fit when it was created, would we want to repeat its mistakes in the future - or are we better off starting afresh with a new system of support designed and tailored to meet the needs of British farmers and rural businesses?" Mr Davies also repeated his call to First Minister Carwyn Jones to include his party in "constructive discussions" with the Welsh Government on the nation's response to Brexit. "If the First Minister truly wants to speak for Wales as a whole then he must offer a voice for the majority in this country who took a collective decision to leave the EU," he said. On the BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme, Mr Jones said it was "right that all four parliaments should ratify, agree to any deal the UK government comes to" on Brexit but denied that he had ever called for a Welsh "veto" on the terms.