AN HISTORIC joint motion between the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament calling for a no-deal Brexit to be ruled out has been given the thumbs-up.

Simultaneous debates were held in the Senedd and Holyrood on Tuesday - the first time such a joint motion has been debated and voted on since the dawn of devolution.

Opening the debate in Cardiff Bay, counsel general and Brexit minister Jeremy Miles said the joint motion showed "just how grave the threat facing Wales, Scotland and the UK as a whole is".

"We hope that we and our colleagues in Scotland can send a clear message that we can avoid this threat and that we must do that," he said.

It proved a bad-tempered debate, with tempers flaring on both sides.

MORE NEWS:

Strict immigration laws are forcing Afghan interpreters who served with British troops in war to live without their families

'This could save lives': Residents welcome new sleeping pods for the homeless in Newport

Newport council dismisses calls for cheaper parking to help footfall

Presenting an amendment calling for Brexit to go ahead as planned on March 29, with or without a deal, Ukip AM Neil Hamilton pointed out that literature sent out by the UK Government before the 2016 referendum said: "This is your decision. The government will implement what you decide."

Mr Hamilton - who is also running in the Newport West by-election - added the joint motion risked the UK not leaving Europe at all, which he said would be "an insult to the British people and to the decision that they made two-and-a-half years ago".

Plaid Cymru also presented an amendment calling for the motion to go further and demand a so-called 'people's vote', which was backed by Labour Torfaen AM Lynne Neagle, in conflict with party policy.

Ms Neagle, who has frequently spoken in support of a second referendum, said: "I am personally not prepared to vote against something that I have repeatedly called for inside and outside this Assembly for months.

"For me, this is a bigger issue than party politics. This is a big issue for our country that will affect our future for years, and I have to vote on my principles on that."

But South Wales East AM Mark Reckless, a member of the Assembly's Conservative group, said attempts to stop Brexit were "eating away at our democracy, eating away at our country".

Alun Davies, who represents Blaenau Gwent, where 62 per cent of people voted for Brexit in 2016, said the debate since the referendum had "broken our democracy".

"I believe that Brexit has also broken Britain," he said. "I believe it has broken the solidarity of communities. It's broken the people we are, and it's broken the people we could have been."

He added: "Whereby Britain has led in the past, it is running away in the present. And it isn't running away as a United Kingdom, it's running away as a broken community and a broken society."

AMs backed the motion 37 votes to 13, while the Scottish Parliament voted 87 to 29 in favour of it.

The Plaid Cymru and Ukip amendments were both defeated.

In a joint statement issued after the votes Mr Drakeford and his Scottish counterpart Nicola Sturgeon said: "This united and historic step was taken to send the clearest possible message to the UK Government and Westminster that this reckless course of action must stop now."

MPs are due to vote on the deal with Europe for a second time next week. If it is voted down they will then be given a vote on whether the UK should leave without a deal. If they vote against a no-deal Brexit they will then be given a vote on extending Article 50.