Carwyn launches an inquiry into ‘leak’ over Carl Sargeant’s sacking
FIRST Minister Carwyn Jones has asked the Welsh Government’s top civil servant to investigate allegations made by former Cabinet Minister Leighton Andrews that news of Carl Sargeant’s sacking was leaked before the AM was told himself.
The inquiry will be undertaken by Permanent Secretary Dame Shan Morgan.
Mr Sargeant is believed to have taken his own life on November 7, four days after being told by Mr
Jones that he should step down from his post as Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children because of unspecified allegations of sexual harassment. Mr Sargeant strongly denied the allegations but was never given details of them.
In a blog post, Mr Andrews – a close friend of Mr Sargeant’s – claimed that a number of people outside government had been told of the sacking in advance.
Mr Andrews wrote: “I have not given any interviews to the media since November 10, the morning that the Independent Inquiry into Carl’s death was announced.
“I have given occasional quotes, particularly when I have come under personal attack, as I have been on two occasions. But privately I have been mulling over various unanswered questions.
“Two weeks ago, the Western Mail chief reporter Martin Shipton wrote: ‘Other allegations are also swirling around the Senedd, with suggestions that outsiders were tipped off from the [Ministerial] fifth floor that Mr Sargeant was going to lose his job in Government before he knew himself. If that happened, it would be in potential breach of codes of conduct covering Ministers, civil servants and/ or special advisers’.”
Mr Andrews went on to describe his experience of reshuffles in the Welsh Government, stating: “I have never seen a reshuffle conducted in quite this way before. I have been involved in six reshuffles. In May 2007, Rhodri Morgan brought me into the Welsh Government as a Deputy Minister. I was appointed in the First Minister’s office in Cathays Park, with Rhodri and his then chief special advisor Mark Drakeford in attendance. In July, following the formation of the One Wales Government [the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition that ran Wales from 2007 to 2011], I was moved to a different Deputy Ministerial role – I was in my Rhondda constituency, so the discussion occurred on the telephone.
“In December 2009, Carwyn Jones appointed me to his Cabinet as Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning. Again, this happened in the FM’s office in Cathays Park, with special adviser Jane Runeckles present. In May 2011, I was appointed Minister for Education and Skills, and I was reappointed to that role in the March 2013 reshuffle. Again, both meetings with the FM took place in his Cathays Park office.
“I was forced to resign from the Government in June 2013 – a story for another day – with the meeting taking place in the FM’s office in Cardiff Bay. I was appointed back to the Cabinet in September 2014 as Minister for Public Services, again in Cathays Park.
“In each of the May 2011, March 2013 and September 2014 appointments, chief special adviser Jo Kiernan was present.”
Mr Andrews went on to state that when a re-shuffle takes place, very few people are in the know: “They are, usually, the First Minister, his chief special adviser, possibly one or two other special advisers, and the First Minister’s ‘outer office’ of Private Office civil servants and the Head of the Cabinet Secretariat.
“For incumbent Ministers, their private offices will know that their Minister is going to meet the FM, but they won’t know what is going to happen to them. Ministerial drivers will know that they are taking Ministers to see the FM, but that is all they know.
In the case of the November 3 reshuffle, as Martin Shipton wrote on November 18, it has been widely speculated that outsiders knew in advance that Carl Sargeant was to be sacked before he did.
“So what do we know? From discussions with many well-connected individuals over the last few weeks I have been able to piece together the following: A Labour AM told the Labour Assembly Group meeting on November 9 that he had been texted by someone he regarded as a reliable source that Carl was to lose his job, before the reshuffle was announced; A leading Welsh journalist received a text in advance of the reshuffle being announced that Carl was to be sacked; A Welsh Labour MP told another Welsh Labour MP that Carl was to lose his job, before the reshuffle was announced.”
Mr Andrews went on to say: “At the end of the day, information must have been leaked.
“The Permanent Secretary should conduct a full leak inquiry, if she isn’t doing so already, into all calls, texts and emails sent by relevant people on the day of the reshuffle and the days leading up to it. Someone, or some people, leaked the news about Carl Sargeant’s sacking. This has never happened before in any Welsh Government reshuffle. It is unprecedented. So who leaked? And to whom?”
We sent the text of Mr Andrews’ blog to the Welsh Government.
Several hours later we received a statement which said: “The First Minister has asked the Permanent Secretary to look into these allegations.”
In the wake of Mr Sargeant’s death, Mr Andrews alleged there had been a culture of “toxic bullying” in the Welsh Government, and that he and others had raised concerns with the First Minister.
In a new set of responses to Assembly Questions posed by Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies and Plaid Cymru AM Adam Price, Mr Jones has again denied knowledge of bullying allegations having been made.
Mr Davies asked: “Will the First Minister clarify whether in October and/or November 2014 he became aware of allegations of behaviour, which could reasonably construed as bullying, intimidation or exclusion, within his own office?”
Mr Jones responded: “I was not made aware of any such allegations.”
Mr Davies also asked: “Will the First Minister confirm when he became aware of allegations made by the former Minister Leighton Andrews of incidents in 2014 of bullying, intimidation, deliberate undermining or other behaviour that could be construed as such within the Welsh Government?”
Mr Jones responded: “November 2017.”