McEvoy apologises after breakingAssembly rules with political campaign
Plaid Assembly Member Neil McEvoy has apologised after being found to have broken Assembly rules.
A cross-party committee has unanimously recommended Mr McEvoy should face censure after the Standards Commissioner concluded he had breached the Code of Conduct for AMs by using Assembly resources for party political campaigning as a Cardiff councillor.
The committee said the breach was a “serious matter” and that the public’s trust in AMs relied upon “members demonstrating integrity and leadership by their actions”.
Mr McEvoy committed the breach in March while he was suspended from the Plaid group in the National Assembly after a tribunal found that he had bullied a Cardiff council official in his role as a councillor.
He had invited press to a “Neil McEvoy AM weekly press conference” which was held at the media briefing room in the Senedd. At that meeting, he handed out copies of his manifesto for the council elections being held on May 4.
Commissioner for Standards Roderick Evans said that he found that the press conference “dealt with matters outside the scope of Mr McEvoy’s activities as an Assembly Member and extended to his party political activities and Plaid Cymru’s local election campaign”.
The cross-party Standards of Conduct Committee unanimously said that “a breach has been found and that the Member should be censured under Standing Order 22.10”.I
It said Mr McEvoy had admitted the breach and said he “wholeheartedly and sincerely” apologised.
Assembly is currently in recess, but once it returns, a debate on the issue is likely be held in the chamber. Previously, AMs who have been censured have been present and chosen to issue an apology, but there is no requirement for them to attend.
When fellow Plaid AM Bethan Jenkins was censured for drink driving, she was absent, attending a protest by former Visteon car parts workers who had lost their pensions.
Assembly rules say that AMs can only use “Assembly Resources for the purpose of their activities as Assembly Members only”.
It excludes AMs from using public resources for “campaigning for the election or re-election of particular candidates for any public office (including the member in question)”.
At the time of the briefing, Conservative AM Janet Finch-Saunders wrote to Presiding Officer Elin Jones voicing concerns.
She wrote: “I am confident that you will share my concern – and the concerns of constituents across the country – that the Senedd should not be used as a conduit for launching the political programmes of Plaid Cymru, or indeed any other political party.”
Now the report from the committee has ruled
A Plaid Cymru spokeswoman said: “This is a matter for the individual member who apologised, and we are pleased that this matter has been resolved.”
At the time, Mr McEvoy said that he handed out copies of the manifesto for the local elections held on May 4 as “these policies were relevant to my suspension”.
He said that the first of the proposed pledges was to restructure Cardiff council’s senior management.
The tribunal had found that he had threatened a council officer that when he said, intending for her to hear, that “I can’t wait for May 2017 when the restructure of the council happens”.
In the wake of the complaint, he told the Assembly committee: “By showing the proposed seven pledges at the press conference, I was demonstrating that I had the full backing of my party in Cardiff, who had agreed to make the restructure pledge number one on the list of pledges.
“However, I was asked questions about these pledges, in particular the restructure pledge relevant to my suspension.”
Mr McEvoy acknowledged he may have “given the impression” that the press conference was to launch Plaid Cymru’s “consultation on these pledges”.