With just a month to go until the Brexit deadline, Jeremy Miles has urged the Prime Minister to admit he has no chance of getting a withdrawal agreement through Parliament and seek a Brexit extension from the EU.
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
The Counsel General also accused Boris Johnson of inflammatory language, stoking divisions in Parliament and plotting to bypass the Benn Act.
The Brexit Minister was speaking ahead of a week of Brexit activity in Wales.
Today, ministers will make a series of no deal statements in the National Assembly updating members on no-deal readiness across a range of areas including health, business and agriculture.
A summit of stakeholder meetings, convened by Welsh Government, will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing together representatives from local government, emergency services, health boards and others, to meet ministers to discuss their preparedness and raise any concerns they may have.
Counsel General and Brexit Minister Jeremy Miles said:
“The Prime Minister talks of ‘getting Brexit done’. Crashing out of the EU on 31 October is not ‘getting Brexit done’.
“What follows will be years of negotiations on our future relationship with our most important trading partners; all built on a basis of distrust and bad feeling. And, in the meantime, chaos.
“It is time for the Prime Minister to stop lying to the country. He now surely has no other chance than to seek an extension and allow a general election to be held so the people in this country can ultimately decide who they want to lead.
“Mr Johnson has acted incredibly irresponsibly in getting to this point, but we no longer expect any better, so we’ve taken steps to ensure we’re as ready as we can be.
“The Welsh Government has played a key leadership role, working with our partners across the country to put plans in place to mitigate against the worst effects of Brexit.
“That work has certainly intensified as the threat of a no deal has risen, as recognised by the Wales Audit Office last week. That’s why we have convened this week’s summit, to ensure we are continuing to take a coordinated approach in our no deal preparations and are able to respond as effectively as possible, together, when disruption inevitably occurs.”
The Welsh Government have also acted to provide clarity to the Welsh public in publishing its new vision for Wales inside the EU. A Brighter Future for Wales sets out in detail the potential damage of leaving the EU without a deal and makes the case for continued membership of the EU.