Nathan Gill (EFDD). – Madam President, nowhere has the impact of EU-wide trade policy been felt more acutely than in Wales. Five thousand jobs were lost in the steel industry last year alone. That is more than one in six. Yet as the crisis deepened, neither the Welsh Assembly, to which I am also elected, nor the UK Government could do anything substantial enough to save a single job. We were blocked from setting our own tariffs to protect against the dumping of cheap steel. We were met with disinterest when we begged Brussels for help, too absorbed with bigger markets in other Member States and more interested in satisfying greedy lobbyists.

Even more disgracefully, the UK Government was banned under EU regulation from providing any state aid to Welsh steel as a reprieve while a long-term solution could be found. As a result, thousands of Welsh people from communities that have been built on steel were thrown into the dust heap of unemployment due to unsympathetic policies in Brussels made by unelected and unaccountable Commissioners.

The UK must not, under any circumstances, enter into any ongoing continental arrangements on dumping after Brexit. We fought for our freedom so that we can take care of our own industries and our own people. Enforced homogeny does not work. Nations have unique economic landscapes and needs. I urge fellow MEPs to wake up. Do not slavishly obey diktats issued by Brussels. Campaign for a mechanism to exempt your countries from poisonous EU legislation when your people are faced with hardship. This is your duty. You are elected to represent them, not the EU. I wish that I and my fellow Welsh politicians could have done more to save thousands of innocent workers whose livelihoods were destroyed. At least I can say that I campaigned for Brexit and will keep fighting for British freedom, so that on 29 March 2019 we can say ‘never again’.