Abolish Assembly politician accused of hypocrisy as he ‘lectures’ Senedd on respecting referenda

A Welsh Government minister has accused Mark Reckless of “lecturing” the Senedd on respecting the Brexit referendum result – while trying to overturn two.

Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport Lee Waters took aim at the MS, who is currently Independent because his party Abolish the Assembly is not registered with the Electoral Commission.

Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport Lee Waters said: “Mark Reckless is lecturing the Senedd on the need to respect the result of referenda, whilst calling for the devolution referendum of less than 10 years ago to be overturned.”

Mr Reckless had earlier said: “The First Minister told us how awful this deal was, just as he told us how awful the three varieties of Theresa May’s deal were, and just as he tells us how awful no deal would be.

“As far as he’s concerned, the only deal that he could support is continued EU membership and rather than supporting the democratic decision that Wales as well as the UK had taken, he instead decided with his government and this institution to represent only the minority who had voted to Remain.

“Of course from the perspective of representing Abolish I welcome that has so helped put devolution into question because this institution has tried to block Brexit and the democratic will of the British people.”

Majority

Senedd Members ultimately voted 28 to 24 in favour of a Welsh Government motion noting the agreement between the UK government and the EU on their future relationship.

They were not asked to approve the deal because Welsh ministers argued that there wasn’t time as the text of the deal had only been provided to them at the last minute.

A motion stating that the agreement is less damaging than leaving the transition period without a trade deal was also accepted.

At Westminster, MPs backed the government’s deal with the EU by 521 votes to 73 – a majority of 448.

There, 37 Labour MPs defied the whip by either abstaining or voting against the Brexit deal, joining Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Liberal Democrat MPs in the ‘no’ lobby.