Question time in the Senedd on Wednesday 20 raised the matter of slave labour.

In answer to my assertion to the cabinet secretary for communities and children Carl Sargeant, that mass immigration had dramatically affected the huge rise in the levels of slavery over the past two decades, Mr Sargeant seemed to suggest that the fault lay with the British who he alleged introduced slavery in the 1700’s. This conveniently ignored the fact that slavery was endemic in the Africa’s long before the Brits got there, and that it was in fact the British who introduced the Anti – Slavery Act, and, because of their maritime might, were able to enforce it world-wide.

That is not to say of course that we were not heavily engaged in the slave trade, but it stretches things a little far to say that slavery in the UK in the twenty first century is all Britain’s fault.

Mr Sargeant’s answer, however, shows up the underlying prejudices of much of the Labour party. Everything European is wonderful, everything British is ipso facto bad.

Time and time again we hear in the Senedd that immigration has been hugely beneficial to the UK and especially Wales. Time and time again we hear the assertion that our industries and especially our National Health Service would collapse if immigration were not halted, but simply even diminished.

They fail to mention that it is because of the neglect of both Labour and Tory governments, who for many decades, failed to train our own doctors and nurses that brought about this unnecessary reliance on foreign workers.

The level of slavery that now exists in the UK is almost entirely down to immigrant gangs exploiting immigrant labour. But, as with the Rotherham sex scandals the Labour party would rather brand those who speak out about these realities as “racist” than target those who perpetrate these heinous crimes.

I have consistently raised the proliferation of car washes and their attendant exploitation in the Senedd only to have flippant, often disrespectful, rebuffs from those questioned. But the facts are there for all to see, in many police reports, informed articles in prominent journals, and from those who deal with these matters in their professional capacities. I will not be cowed by Labour tactics, those being exploited, wherever they come from, deserve the protection of the law.