First minister under pressure to back 'people's vote'

Mr Drakeford campaigned against leaving Europe ahead of the 2016 referendum and has repeatedly said he believes remaining in the EU would be in the best interests of Wales and the UK as a whole.

But he has stopped short of overtly supporting a so-called 'people's vote', saying instead a new General Election is his preferred course of action.

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But now, in an open letter to the first minister, pro-EU pressure group Wales for Europe has said the UK Government's negotiating position fails to meet 10 tests set out in a joint white paper published by the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru in January 2017.

Among these were for Wales to have "full, unfettered" access to the single market, a guarantee that EU funding paid to Wales will continue, and for guarantees to be made regarding the status of European citizens already living in the UK.

The letter says: “Even if some compromise agreement is reached in the talks between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, there is no realistically available deal that offers Wales, either economically and politically, outcomes that are better than. or anywhere near as good as, those available through our continued membership of the European Union.

“It is already clear that the UK Government has failed abjectly to secure the interests of the people of Wales."

It added: “Whatever way forward is agreed by Parliament, the only way to test public opinion anew, in a way that respects the result of the 2016 referendum, unmuddied by other issues, is to hold a new People’s Vote.

"This is the only fair democratic option and should be an essential commitment in any Labour manifesto, whether for European elections or for a General Election."

Mark Drakeford

Responding, a spokeswoman said it remained the position of the Welsh Government that a deal can be struck.

She said: “We can agree with much of the analysis of how the prime minister’s deal fails to meet our tests.

"That is why we have repeatedly urged Parliament to reject it.

“It is clearly not the case, however, that there remains no prospect of Parliament endorsing a deal of the sort which the Welsh Government has set out.

"The process of the Brexit negotiations so far has been to move the UK Government – too slowly and too belatedly – towards the position we set out in our White Paper Securing Wales Future. The cross-party negotiations which started before Easter continue and could yet result in continued and sufficient movement in the same direction.

"The extension to Article 50 provides time to reach such a conclusion."

She added: "The first minister has been fiercely critical of the prime minister’s shambolic handling of the Brexit negotiations, and of the UK Government’s failure to engage fully and properly with the devolved administrations. He has consistently made these failures clear to the Welsh public.

“We’ve been absolutely clear that if an acceptable deal cannot be struck, then there is no option but to put the decision back to the people.

"And in those circumstances, we would campaign to remain within the EU.

"This remains our position.”