Member of Senedd joins party working to end it
FORMER Ukip Wales leader Gareth Bennett has just become the first ever Member of the Senedd for the Abolish the Assembly party.
Mr Bennett, who has been sitting as an independent since November last year, plans to represent the Abolish the Assembly party at the Senedd elections planned for next year. At the 2016 election, the party won 4% of the vote.
The party has no plans to change its name even though the Assembly changed its name to the Senedd/ Welsh Parliament earlier this year.
In a video interview for our website, WalesOnline, we caught up with Mr Bennett to ask why he has made the switch. In a bad tempered exchange, he said he would not be resigning his seat despite the fact he got his Senedd seat on the Ukip party lists.
This is the full exchange:
WalesOnline: Are you planning on resign your seat because you’re elected for a different party? Many of the people who voted for Ukip might not want to abolish the Welsh Parliament? Gareth Bennett: “Well they may not but they can tell me next when I stand. If they don’t want that policy to be adopted they can vote for other candidates and get rid of me.
WalesOnline: You are not representing the people who voted for you any more?
Gareth Bennett: Oh I think I am.
WalesOnline: But you’re standing for a different party. Lots of people might have wanted to leave the EU but... Gareth Bennett: I am not sure how much of recent politics has escaped your attention. Ukip’s central policy was for the UK to leave the European Union. There is no reason for Ukip to exist now. I will actually be doing more for the Ukip voters by standing for Abolish the Welsh Assembly than by continuing with Ukip.
WalesOnline: But they didn’t vote for you, it’s up to them to decide, it’s not for you to decide. Surely you should be resigning. Ethnically it is incredibly questionable surely?
Gareth Bennett: “I don’t think so.”
WalesOnline: How do you respond to people who say this is a cynical attempt to hold on to your seat and take advantage of the more proportional system we have here in Wales? Gareth Bennett: I have been calling for the abolition of the Welsh Assembly ever since I got into the Welsh Assembly. I was calling for this policy to be adopted by Ukip when I was in Ukip.
WalesOnline: We have talked about [the Welsh Parliament] wasting money, a couple of years ago where you spent £10,000 of public money on an office that was riddled with damp and was unusable. This was done without a survey and against the advice of solicitors. That office never opened. Is this not a clear example of wasting money in the Welsh Parliament when actually it’s you who’s doing it. You’re part of the problem not the solution here?
Gareth Bennett: Oddly not. Nearly all of the AMs actually have constituency offices which probably cost £17,000 a year to run. I am one of the few AMs who doesn’t have a constituency office. I have probably saved the Welsh taxpayer over 50 grand by not having one.
WalesOnline: But you spent £10,000 on an office that never opened, how is that saving money?
Gareth Bennett: I just gave you the sums, there is no point you just repeating the same question back to me.
WalesOnline: Can you not see there is a bit of a disconnect between you saying this place is a waste of money and you spent money on an office that never opened?
Gareth Bennett: No, not in the context of the answer I just gave you. It might help if you actually considered the answer before you ask the next question.
WalesOnline: So you spent money on an office and you got that office against the advice of solicitors, without a survey and the public paid for that. How is that not a waste of money?
Gareth Bennett: I didn’t say it wasn’t a waste of money but the massive waste of money is by AMs having constituency offices that they don’t have to use any more in the age of the internet.
WalesOnline: The total budget for the Senedd, according to the then Assembly Commission from 2018 to 2019 was £55m. Compare this to £443m for the House of Commons and £560m for the Houses of Parliament – does that not represent fairly good value for money? Gareth Bennett: No it’s useless because we don’t need it. We need a UK Parliament, we don’t need a Welsh Parliament.
WalesOnline: Do you think Westminster is the best place to look after Welsh interests? Do you think power going back to Westminster will be in the best interests of Wales, do you think they will be looking out for Wales?
Gareth Bennett: It would be better value for money than an Assembly that does nothing for the people of Wales.
WalesOnline: Can you not see there is a bit of a disconnect between you saying you’re not being in favour of the EU and you want power to be made closest to the people who will be affected by it but also saying you don’t want the Welsh Parliament to exist? Can you not see there is a bit of disconnect there?
Gareth Bennett: No.
In the same interview leader of The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party Richard Suchorzewski told WalesOnline that if they got three to five Members of the Senedd in the next election they would consider that a good result.
He also said they were looking to filter people coming forward as candidates to prevent candidates who didn’t believe in their cause.
On Mr Bennett he said: “I am delighted to announce that Gareth Bennett has joined our party and has become our first Assembly Member.
“Gareth has been an outspoken critic of the Welsh Assembly for some time, has spoken out on unpopular issues on behalf of his constituents and continually holds the Assembly to account. These are exciting times for Abolish and our supporters. Gareth will no doubt play a pivotal role in our 2021 anti-Senedd election campaign. The next few months will see us unveiling more candidates and possibly a few surprises. Gareth joining is just the beginning.”
The next few months will see us unveiling more candidates and possibly a few surprises. Gareth joining is just the beginning