Brexit: Any deal better than no deal, first minister says

Mark Drakeford: "If they strike a deal they will be able to go back and build on it"

A no-deal exit from the European Union would be "catastrophic for Wales", First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.

Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen have agreed to extend Brexit trade talks past Sunday's deadline.

"Any deal is better than no deal," said Mr Drakeford.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said "political will" was needed for the UK and EU to agree a post-Brexit trade deal.

Parliament's Welsh Affairs Committee said this week that there was a "significant risk" neither Holyhead nor Fishguard ports would have facilities ready for new customs checks needed from 1 January.

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Mr Drakeford told BBC Politics Wales: "If they strike a deal they will be able to go back and build on it because they will find that the things that are not resolved will continue to be profoundly important to the United Kingdom and to the people who live here in Wales."

The former leader of the Vote Leave campaign in Wales, David Jones, has said the negotiators should "by all means negotiate, if necessary, until the stroke of 11 o'clock on New Year's Eve".

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative MP for Clwyd West added: "[Boris Johnson] must keep faith with the British people and resist any temptation to accept a sub-optimal deal that would cheat them of the sovereignty for which they voted.

"If the EU still refuses a deal that fully respects our hard-won independence, he should leave the table in the knowledge that he has the full support of his countrymen and women."

The basics

• Brexit happened but rules didn't change at once: The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020, but leaders needed time to negotiate a deal for life afterwards - they got 11 months.

• Talks are happening: The UK and the EU have until 31 December 2020 to agree a trade deal as well as other things, such as fishing rights.

• If there is no deal: Border checks and taxes will be introduced for goods travelling between the UK and the EU. But deal or no deal, we will still see changes.

What happens next with Brexit?

Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government would "stand up our emergency co-ordination centre in Wales over the next few days".

"I signed off a rota on Friday where there will be a minister on duty day and night throughout the month of January," he added.

"We are working very hard on our responsibilities for traffic around the ports here in Wales.

"We will make sure that we have the best advice we can give businesses and others, but this is a disaster that is made in London, made by the Conservative Party."

The main sticking point in the talks is how close the UK should stick to EU economic rules in the future.

The EU is determined to prevent the UK from gaining what it sees as an unfair advantage of having tariff-free access to its markets - not paying taxes on goods being bought and sold - while setting its own standards on products, employment rights and business subsidies.

Fishing rights is another major area of disagreement, with the EU warning that without access to UK waters for EU fleets, UK fishermen will no longer get special access to EU markets to sell their goods.

But the UK argues that what goes on in its own waters, and its wider business rules, should be under its control as a sovereign country.

Mr Raab said that, at this stage of negotiations, "what really matters is the political will".

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: "The bar is quite high for us to be able to keep talking. We would need at a political level a commitment to move on those two key issues.

"Never say never because EU negotiations can often drag and drift. But actually we do need finality and therefore we need at the political level of Ursula von der Leyen that there is clarity the EU will move on those two key issues.

"If we get that then there are still talks to be processed."

Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts accused the prime minister of "playing fast and loose with people's jobs, and seems insensible to the harm his brinkmanship is causing".

She added: "There is still time to offer some mature compromise ahead next week. Our farmers, manufacturers, our ports and others depend on him to show leadership."

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