Plaid’sWood accused of being a ‘dictator and a control freak’
A FORMER Plaid Cymru Parliamentary candidate and donor has accused party leader Leanne Wood of being a dictator and a “control freak” after she intervened to stop him standing in this year’s general election.
Clayton Jones was selected by local members to be Plaid’s candidate in Cynon Valley, where he was due to oppose long-serving Labour MP Ann Clwyd.
But within hours of the selection meeting in April, Mr Jones received an email from Ms Wood which said: “I need to speak to you urgently about the Cynon candidacy. Can you phone me please on [Ms Wood’s mobile number]?
“Going ahead as things stand would cause too many problems for the party. I would like to talk to you about it all. Thanks. Leanne.”
Mr Jones, 64, a former controversial bus operator who had numerous clashes with the Traffic Commissioner over a long period, said: “I didn’t phone Leanne. Instead I phoned my lawyer, who told me that the way Plaid’s constitution was written meant that the national executive of the party could do pretty much what it wanted to do. Since it is run by Leanne’s cronies, I knew I would be fighting a losing battle if I tried to stay on as the candidate.
“I didn’t go public during the election period because I didn’t want to damage Plaid’s chances, but I now think the time is right to speak out.
“I think it is outrageous that Leanne intervened after I had been selected by local members. She may not like me, but the fact is that I was on the party’s approved list of candidates. When I got onto it a few years ago, I was given a grilling by the panel about my business record. The fact is that I have no criminal convictions.
“If Leanne had a problem with me being a Parliamentary candidate, she should have tried to get me removed from the list. But she didn’t. I was selected by due process and she decided to interfere in a way I consider wholly inappropriate for a party leader. So far as I am concerned she is a dictator and a control freak.
“I have been a member of Plaid for 50 years and have donated a lot of money to the party in the past. In 2001, when Leanne stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Rhondda, I gave the local party £8,000. I won’t be giving it any more while she is leader.”
Mr Jones, who lives in Ynysybwl, said that while he hadn’t expected to win the election, he had planned to make it a vibrant campaign.
He said: “I had plans to buy advertising hoardings in the constituency and to employ a social media campaigner.
“I was going to attack Ann Clwyd on her record as MP, suggesting she had more concern for Kabul than Ynysybwl.
“But after being forced out as a candidate I decided to spend no money on the campaign.”
The replacement candidate, Liz Walters, came third behind Ms Clwyd and Tory candidate Keith Dewhirst.
Ms Walters won 13.8% of the vote against 61% for Ms Clwyd and 19.4% for Mr Dewhirst.
A Plaid Cymru spokeswoman said: “Plaid Cymru does not comment on internal discussions about individuals in candidate selection processes.”
At one time Mr Jones ran Shamrock Travel, which grew from being a one-bus company into one of the biggest bus operators in South East Wales with a 229-strong fleet of vehicles and 300 staff. He and his then wife Alison sold the firm to Veolia in 2006 in a multi-million-pound deal.
In the same year Mr Jones set up Heart of Wales – a significantly smaller operation than Shamrock. Within a few years the firm was in conflict with the Traffic Commissioner, who barred it from running services in Caerphilly following a series of complaints.
In 2013 Heart of Wales went into liquidation with an estimated net deficiency of £895,935.
At the time a source close to Mr Jones said: “Clayton has had enough of the bus industry. He’s faced a lot of hostility and has been involved in many battles over the years, but it’s become very difficult for a small operator to survive against competition from the big companies.”