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Politics

Welsh Government promises ban on lying politicians

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THE WELSH Government promised to introduce a law banning lying politicians before the next Senedd election after striking a last-minute deal to avert defeat.

Mick Antoniw, who is counsel general, the Welsh Government’s chief legal adviser, reached an agreement with Adam Price just before a key vote on creating an offence of deception.

Under the elections bill, Mr Price proposed a four-year disqualification for Senedd members, ministers or candidates found guilty of deliberate lying.

Mr Antoniw stopped short of supporting criminalisation as he invited the Senedd’s standards committee, which is holding an inquiry on accountability, to make proposals.

He said: “The Welsh Government will bring forward legislation before 2026 for the disqualification of members and candidates found guilty of deception through an independent judicial process.”

In return, Plaid Cymru’s 12 members and Rhys ab Owen, who sits as an independent, abstained – with Labour winning the vote to remove clause 64 from the bill, 26-13.

Without the deal, Welsh ministers would likely have suffered defeat because the Senedd’s speaker is required to use her casting vote against amendments in the event of a tie.

Mr Antoniw, who attended his first Tory group meeting that day to try to sway its members, joked that the 11th-hour deal spared the Senedd from a 30-page speech he had prepared.

Mr Price, who represents Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said: “What has just been announced by the counsel general is truly historic, in fact it is globally pioneering.

“We now have a commitment from the government that our democracy will be the first – the first in the world to introduce a general prohibition on deliberate deception by politicians.”

He added: “For it to have public trust, it has to sit outside the political process – you can’t have politicians pointing the finger at each other and being judge and jury.”

Mr Price, who served as Plaid Cymru leader from 2018 to 2023, said a collapse in trust in politics poses an existential threat to democracies worldwide.

He said: “Democracy starts to break down if the electors can’t trust what the elected say.”

The former MP warned existing measures – such as standards committees, commissioners and Westminster’s recall system – have all failed to solve the credibility problem.

Mr Price said a small minority of politicians deliberately distort the truth for their own gain but they poison the well for everyone else.

Labour’s Lee Waters said there is consensus across the chamber that deliberate lying undermines public trust in politics and needs to be rooted out.

He said: “I was elected in 2016 – before the Brexit referendum, before Donald Trump … before Boris Johnson lied his way to Downing Street then lied his way out again. There’s no doubt politics in this country has become darker … and I worry we’re adjusting to it.”

The former minister said he has witnessed lying, manipulation, racist abuse, arson and mobs whipped up by the far-right descending on his Llanelli constituency over the past year.

“It’s been an awful, upsetting experience seeing this ugliness becoming quietly normalised,” said Mr Waters, who abstained in an earlier vote to allow further debate on the issue.

He reiterated support for a criminal offence of deception because it would set a high bar and the courts are independent. “People don’t trust politicians to regulate themselves,” he said.

Peter Fox gave the Conservatives’ backing for Mr Price’s plan, pressing ahead in voting against the Welsh Government’s amendment despite the announcement.

He said: “I’m anxious .. that the way forward that may be proposed may not give the parliamentary time to enable things to go forward whereas the current course would.”

Alun Davies, a Labour backbencher, denounced a tweet by Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Conservative group, posted on the morning of the debate on July 2.

The Blaenau Gwent MS said: “A single message ‘Labour wants to pay illegal immigrants £1,600 a month’ – something we know which is completely untrue … no basis of truth at all.”

He argued against bringing the criminal justice system into politics, saying: “A parliament shouldn’t be subject to judicial oversight … [it] should be able to govern its own affairs.”

James Evans sympathised with Mr Price’s proposal, saying he thought it would go some way to rebuilding public confidence in politicians.

But he cautioned the plan could do “real democratic damage” as he raised risks to parliamentary privilege – legal immunities which allow politicians to speak freely.

Mr Evans suggested Senedd members could face a flurry of defamation lawsuits. “I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every time I say something,” he said.

The Tory MS for Brecon and Radnorshire told the Senedd: “I don’t think it is right that someone’s personal views could be challenged in court.”

Caerphilly’s Labour MS Hefin David agreed on privilege, adding that the far-right or hard-left politicians might use “criminalisation of their views” as a “badge of honour”. 

Jane Dodds said political dishonesty is corroding public trust, warning that protections in Cardiff Bay and Westminster are woefully inadequate.

Warning that lying flourishes because politicians can get away with it, Ms Dodds told the chamber: “We have to do more – there is no excuse.” 

The Lib Dems’ leader in Wales raised a “shocking” survey which revealed 45% of people rarely, if ever, trust governments to prioritise national interests over party politics.

Ms Dodds, who represents Mid and West Wales, said: “Truth in our society is fragile and vulnerable. Our goal is straightforward: it is to stop politicians … from calculated lying.

“That is an act that can have a deep, often traumatic consequence to people’s lives. And let’s be clear here: freedom of speech is not freedom to lie.”

Education

Cardiff fabricator goes west to support Portfield School redevelopment

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CARDIFF-based fabricator Dudley’s Aluminium is supporting the redevelopment of Portfield School in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

Portfield School is a special educational needs school for students aged between three and nineteen in the county with a diverse range of complex and profound learning needs.

Funded by Pembrokeshire County Council and the Welsh Government through its ‘Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme’, the redevelopment of the school includes replacing the current lower school building, refurbishing the sixth form centre and the creation of a new children’s residential centre.

The new and updated facilities will feature specialist therapy rooms, breakout and sensory spaces and dedicated outdoor areas to meet the needs of the school’s students.

Dudley’s Aluminium has teamed up with Morgan Sindall Construction on this project and will install Kawneer doors, windows and capped curtain walling on the build.

The fabricator has previously worked with Morgan Sindall Construction on another school in the town, Haverfordwest High VC School, which has won a number of awards including prestigious Constructing Excellence in Wales awards.

Colin Shorney, Managing Director at Dudley’s Aluminium, said: “We are excited to be back in Haverfordwest to work with Morgan Sindall Construction on another school project to benefit learners in Pembrokeshire.

“This ambitious project will deliver a modern campus and improved learning environment for students with additional needs.”

Since 1993, Dudley’s Aluminium has offered clients full in-house design and production facilities, completing many successful and prestigious projects within the education, health, commercial, retail, residential and defence sectors throughout the UK and Channel Islands.

Dudley’s reputation for quality has been recognised with several industry-related accreditations. The company is CHAS accredited, Constructionline registered and BM Trada certified to manufacture enhanced security products to align with PAS24:2016 and BS 4873.

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Politics

Drakeford confirms public sector shielded from tax hike

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MARK DRAKEFORD confirmed the UK Treasury will cover increased costs of national insurance in the public sector amid concerns additional funding could be “swallowed up” by tax rises.

The former First Minister said Wales will receive full funding for employer national insurance (NI) contributions for public sector workers, as defined by the Office for National Statistics.

He told the Senedd this will be “above and beyond” an additional £1.7bn announced for Wales last week in Labour’s first UK budget in 15 years.

Prof Drakeford, Wales’ finance secretary, who will announce the Welsh Government’s own spending plans in December, described the UK settlement as a step change.

But he stressed: “It was never going to be possible to repair 14 years’ worth of damage within the first 14 weeks of a UK Labour Government.”

Prof Drakeford explained the Welsh Government will receive £235m in 2025/26 for capital investment in areas such as repairing schools or building hospitals.

In a statement to the Senedd on November 5, he said: “That is a real-terms 7% increase in a single year. That compares with 0.5% a year on average over the last 14 years.

“In 14 years of the last Conservative government, the annual uplift in capital available to the Welsh Government accumulated to the uplift we have now received in a single year.”

He contrasted this with an extra £1m in capital spending provided by Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory chancellor, in March, stating Wales now is 235 times better off.

He said: “That additional capital will not fill every hole nor undo all the damage inflicted on the fabric of our public services but it is a different world to the one we had learned to fear.”

Peter Fox, the Conservatives’ shadow finance secretary, criticised the “snatch-and-grab” budget, accusing Labour of misleading the public and breaking manifesto promises.

He told the debating chamber or Siambr: “Despite all the spin, this is the same old Labour: borrowing more, taxing more – taking more of other people’s money.”

Mr Fox said the £40bn in tax rises, which includes employers’ NI contributions, will suppress economic growth and wages, costing jobs and impacting thousands of working people.

Accusing Rachel Reeves of “fiscal fiddling”, he warned the chancellor is playing a dangerous game that risks saddling generations with debt by maxing out the country’s credit card today.

His Conservative colleague James Evans raised concerns about care homes and GP surgeries, which, unlike the health service, will not be protected from the NI hike.

Heledd Fychan suggested calls for HS2 funding, devolution of the Crown Estate and replacement of the Barnett formula had fallen on deaf ears.

Prof Drakeford said Welsh ministers would continue to make the case for rail funding and reform of the formula that is used to allocate money to Wales.

But he stressed it is unrealistic to expect fundamental change in six months, with the Barnett formula dating to 1978 and reform requiring agreement across all four nations.

Ms Fychan, Plaid Cymru’s shadow finance secretary, told the Senedd that cruel and damaging policies of the previous Tory UK Government are continuing under Labour.

Her party colleague Sioned Williams was disappointed the UK’s first female chancellor did not mention childcare in her speech given its importance to tackling inequality.

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Politics

Senedd reprimands Tory leader over 20mph tweet

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THE LEADER of the Conservative opposition was given a slap on the wrists after a committee found his “false” social media posts brought the Senedd into disrepute.

Andrew RT Davies was formally reprimanded by fellow Senedd members following an investigation into a tweet describing 20mph as a “blanket” policy.

Douglas Bain, the standards commissioner, concluded Mr Davies breached the code of conduct by continuing to use the term despite a ruling it was “imprecise and inaccurate”.

The Tory was found to have brought the Senedd into disrepute but cleared of breaking rules on honesty, with Mr Bain saying: “I am satisfied it was not his intention to deceive anyone.”

In his report, Mr Bain wrote: “When he posted the tweet the member knew – or ought to have known that – although it was not untruthful or dishonest, it was false.”

The politician, who has led the Tory group in two stints since 2011, did not attend the debating chamber or Siambr on November 6 as his peers agreed to censure him.

Hannah Blythyn, who chairs the standards committee, raised concerns about a steady increase in complaints about Senedd members’ conduct on social media.

She said: “I would like to take this opportunity to remind members: while we recognise that social media is a tool that has the potential to be used effectively for communication and debate, it is for members to determine the accuracy of information they are posting.”

Senedd members backed the motion to endorse the committee’s recommendation with no objection from the Conservative benches, doing away with the need for a vote.

Mr Davies was also found to have breached rules following a separate complaint about a “misleading and dangerous” tweet but the Senedd agreed to take no further action on this.

Labour’s Lee Waters, who introduced the default 20mph policy, expected better from a Senedd member, “let alone the leader of the opposition in our national parliament”.

He said: “A censure by this 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’m bound to note a pattern of behaviour by the leader of the opposition … and the fact he’s not here this afternoon….

“I’m not aware if he’s offered any explanation but it speaks of a contempt about our standards. This is not the first time his words and conduct have been questioned.”

Mr Waters added: “Describing the change in speed limit as a blanket one, when it only applies to a minority of roads, is clearly deliberate and intended to mislead. But this isn’t some jolly jape, lives are at stake, and confusion is sowed by inaccurate use of language.”

In September, Natasha Asghar, the Tory shadow transport secretary, was similarly given a ticking off by the Senedd for depicting 20mph as a “blanket” policy.

She refused to back down, saying: “To say that I brought the Senedd into disrepute by using the word ‘blanket’ is purely absurd.

“I make no apology whatsoever for standing up for my constituents and residents across Wales when it comes to the Welsh Government’s 20mph scheme.”

The complaint against her was submitted by Mr Waters and Ms Asghar vowed to continue campaigning despite “desperate” attempts to stop her.

Mr Bain accused Ms Asghar of “saying one thing and doing the opposite”, writing: “I have no doubt that such conduct is unacceptable and …  brings the Senedd into disrepute.”

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