‘Carl told me he was being bullied... and it was taking its toll’
A FORMER minister who killed himself had earlier confided in an opposition politician about allegations of bullying at the top of the Welsh Government, it has been claimed.
Conservative Assembly member Darren Millar said Carl Sergeant told him privately in 2014 about bullying allegedly coming from an “individual” in First Minister Carwyn Jones’s office.
Mr Sargeant, 49, from Connah’s Quay, is believed to have killed himself last month, four days after being removed from his role as cabinet secretary for communities and children while facing allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
Mr Millar, the AM for Clwyd West, revealed the details of the conversation while making a statement in the Senedd.
The Conservative said he had done a lot of “soul searching” but felt a “moral obligation” to speak out.
He said he submitted questions to the First Minister about bullying in 2014 after Mr Sargeant asked him to do so.
“During that conversation Carl told me that he was unhappy, because there was bullying going on within the Welsh Government, which was coming from an individual in the First Minister’s office, and that this was taking a toll on him personally, along with others,” he said.
“I will not be naming the individual who Carl identified to me today, but I wish to make it absolutely clear at this point that at no time did Carl in his discussions with me ever accuse the First Minister himself of bullying.”
Mr Millar said Mr Sargeant gave him some handwritten draft ques- tions to table, which he hoped would be “sufficient to prompt internal Welsh Government action by the First Minister to address the bullying problem”.
At the time, Mr Millar asked whether Mr Jones had ever received any reports or been made aware of allegations of bullying by advisers to the Welsh Government.
Mr Jones replied that no allegations were made – an answer that “surprised and disappointed” Mr Sargeant, who “resigned himself to the situation continuing”, Mr Millar said.
“His only motivation in disclosing the problems within the Welsh Government to me and requesting my support in this way was to attempt to resolve the frustration and stress of the ongoing situation at that time for him and his colleagues in the Welsh Government,” he said.
The questions resurfaced following Mr Sargeant’s death, with Mr Jones insisting issues brought to his attention at the time were dealt with.
Those answers are the subject of an investigation into whether Mr Jones misled the assembly.
An independent adviser, former lawyer James Hamilton, will publish a report into whether Mr Jones broke the ministerial code.
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “The First Minister stands by his previous answers on this matter.”
Mr Sargeant was suspended from the Labour Party over allegations of “unwanted attention, inappropriate touching or groping” on November 3.