UK break-up not impossible

Posted By: September 10, 2016

First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones has warned the UK risks breaking up unless all nations play a hands-on role in the Brexit negotiations

   Benjamin Wright. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, September 10, 2016

THE UK risks breaking up unless all home nations play a hands-on role in the Brexit negotiations, Wales’s First Minister Carwyn Jones has warned.

This week Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed she will not be giving a “running commentary” on her government’s plans about leaving the European Union.

Welsh Labour leader Mr Jones believes that talks will fail if they just end up being a two-way dialogue between Brussels and London.

The former barrister, who is on a trade mission in the US, will speak about Britain’s vote to leave the EU at a speech in Chicago later.

He is expected to say: “Wales and the other devolved nations must play a full and active role in the negotiations to leave the EU, to ensure our interests are fully protected.

“Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast must also have seats at the table.

“Whatever deal is finally negotiated, its acceptance should be subject to the support of the four Parliaments that now legislate for the UK.

“There can be no return to the old constitutional status quo, where the United Kingdom was one of the most centralised states in the developed world.

“We have to embrace the new reality with fresh constitutional thinking if our British Union is to survive the new tensions created by EU exit.

“Unless we take this seriously, nothing – up to and including the break-up of the UK into its component parts – would be

inconceivable.”