An all Wales meeting of Farmers’ Union of Wales leaders has unanimously called on the Government to give more time to deliver on Brexit, following the latest voting in Parliament.
With just 9 days to go before crashing out on a no-deal, senior members of the union, at a late night meeting yesterday (2 April 2019), reaffirmed their call on the Govt to "take back control" of the process from the EU by revoking Article 50, which is in their gift to do right now and does not need EU agreement.
“But it must be done with the intention of developing a solution that is acceptable,” said FUW President Glyn Roberts. “The second phase is then consensus building, which would be followed by confirmation in Parliament of the way ahead, or a referral to the country in a referendum, which would be for options A or B as developed in the House of Commons”.
Mr Roberts reiterated the FUW’s long held view that leaving the EU while staying in the Single Market and Customs Union remained the best way to bridge the political divide which had come from the EU referendum.
Having called for Article 50 to be revoked in January, in recent weeks the FUW has called for preparations to be made for holding European Parliament elections and for all relevant legislation to be changed to allow Brexit to take place over a far more realistic timetable.
“The nature of last night’s meeting was reminiscent of the meetings held with union leaders during the Foot and Mouth crisis – but in this case it is a national crisis inflicted by the UK Government’s Brexit strategy and timetable, rather than a disease,” said Mr Roberts.
“The UK Government holds a cure for the current crisis, which is to revoke Article 50 and adopt a different strategy to bring us out of the EU in a smooth and orderly manner over time. Limping from extension to extension is merely treating the symptoms.”
ENDS