(Title Image: Welsh Labour)
The First Minister has broken ranks with the UK Labour party and publicly called for a second referendum on Brexit following a humilating set of results for Labour in Wales at the 2019 European Parliament election.
“The chance of doing a deal of the sort that we have always advocated seems to me now to be at an end.
“There’s no prospect of that happening sadly, and in those circumstances our view is that going back to the people, in what has been a very deeply divided society, asking people for their verdict again is the best way forward.”
– First Minister, Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West)
Labour lost a national election in Wales for only the second time in 100 years and finished in third place behind the Brexit Party and Plaid Cymru. Much of this was blamed on the UK party’s policy that a general election should take precedence over a second referendum, which would only be held if the UK Parliament couldn’t agree on a way forward – a policy that until now the Welsh branch has stuck to.
Andrew RT Davies AM (Con, South Wales Central) said a new referendum wasn’t the answer to an equally poor showing by the Conservatives, while Delyth Jewell AM (Plaid, South Wales East) described it as a “cynical reaction” to shore up Labour’s support.
