Welsh Tory leader accused of ‘shrugging off’ official reprimand

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives has been accused of “shrugging off” an official reprimand in the Senedd.

Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the opposition in the Welsh Parliament, was “censured” in the Senedd on Wednesday – an official reprimand noting disapproval of a member’s behaviour.

Mr RT Davies fell foul of the rules over social media posts saying Wales had a “blanket” 20mph speed limit – despite there being exceptions to the policy and it only affecting built-up areas – and another which said former first minister Vaughan Gething’s government had embraced an “extreme ideology”.

The complaints were considered by the Senedd’s standards commissioner Douglas Bain and a cross-party committee before being brought before the chamber.

Lee Waters, the Labour MS for Llanelli, criticised Mr RT Davies for not turning up to the chamber to respond to the reprimand, accusing him of “shrugging off” the complaints.

He said: “A censure by the Senedd is a solemn thing.

“None of us should take lightly a rebuke by our peers or a finding against us by the independent standards commissioner.

“But I am bound to note a pattern of behaviour from the leader of the opposition and the fact that he is not here this afternoon, it speaks of a contempt about our standards.”

Mr Waters said the posts were “clearly deliberate and intended to mislead”.

Hannah Blythyn, the chair of the Standards of Conduct Committee, warned members they should not make statements “which are imprecise and inaccurate”.

Mr RT Davies will face no further consequences.

Natasha Asghar, the Tory shadow transport minister, received a similar reprimand for her comments on the speed limit policy in September.

A default lower speed limit in built-up areas was introduced in Wales in September last year, but not all 30mph roads have seen speeds reduced as councils have the power to exempt certain routes.

The second complaint to the standards commissioner related to a tweet, which said: “Vaughan Gething’s Labour government is embracing the same extreme ideology as its predecessor. Nothing has changed.”

He copied into his post an image of Mr Gething and of a pregnant woman with the text “Welsh Government press release celebrates ‘birthing people’”, taken from the Guido Fawkes website.

The commissioner reported that the statement referred to in the tweet was not quoting the Welsh government but a Health Inspectorate Wales report.

While the committee noted Mr RT Davies had not written the text copied from the article, they said he had a responsibility to check its accuracy but said while there had been a breach of the code of conduct, they did not believe further action was warranted.