The Daily Telegraph

Welsh minister ‘was persistent­ly bullied’

- By Patrick Sawer

THE Welsh Assembly cabinet member who took his own life after being sacked over claims of sexual harassment had previously been subjected to a campaign of persistent bullying, a close colleague has claimed.

Carl Sargeant was repeatedly “undermined” amid a toxic atmosphere of “minor bullying, mind games, powergames and favouritis­m” within the corridors of the assembly in Cardiff, said Leyton Andrews, a former minister.

In an account published on his blog yesterday, Mr Andrews effectivel­y accused Carwyn Jones, the Welsh First Minister, of doing nothing to protect his friend, who killed himself on Tuesday, leaving a wife and two children.

Mr Sargeant’s death at 49 came four days after he was sacked as a cabinet secretary for communitie­s and children by Mr Jones, following claims of inappropri­ate behaviour from at least three women. He was not given details of the allegation­s, but it later emerged these included “unwanted attention, inappropri­ate touching or groping”.

Such is the atmosphere in Cardiff that some have even suggested that the harassment claims may have even been part of a campaign of disinforma­tion against Mr Sargeant.

Mr Andrews criticised the behaviour of Mr Jones and others in the assembly, stating: “There had been deliberate personal underminin­g of Carl Sargeant from within the Welsh Labour Government over several years.

“I am not going to name names today. But I made a complaint to the First Minister about one aspect of this, of which I had direct evidence, in the autumn of 2014.

“An informal investigat­ion was undertaken. I then asked for it to be made formal. I was told it would be. I was never shown the outcome. There was no due process.”

In a statement last night, Mr Jones said he could not respond, in advance of the coroner’s inquest, to the various claims and “inaccuraci­es” made since Mr Sargeant’s death.

He said: “I and my team will of course be co-operating fully with any questions that are raised [at the inquest]. The family deserve to have their questions answered and if that isn’t possible through the inquest then I will endeavour to make that happen through other means.”

“I welcome any scrutiny of my actions in the future. I quite properly did all that I could to make sure that everything was being done by the book. I had no alternativ­e but to take the action that I did and I hope that people will understand that.”

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