‘£5k wasted on AM Asia trip that never happened’
MORE than £5,000 of taxpayers’ money was wasted on a trip to Asia that never happened so the Liberal Democrats’ only AM could help to stop an AM-led inquiry into whether First Minister Carwyn Jones misled the National Assembly over bullying allegations, the Conservatives believe.
As Cabinet Secretary for Education Kirsty Williams votes with Labour, which currently has just 28 of the Assembly’s 60 seats.
In November Ms Williams was due to travel to Vietnam with three officials to boost student recruitment and research collaboration.
Unrecoverable travel and hotel bookings were made at a total cost of £5,572.52.
Yet the trip was called off at a time when opposition parties were pushing for an AM-led investigation into whether Mr Jones misled the Assembly in 2014 and 2017 when he claimed no-one had raised with him concerns about bullying on the ministerial fifth floor of the Assembly.
Four current and former Cabinet ministers are understood to have complained about the behaviour of an individual on the fifth floor, where former Welsh Government media special adviser Steve Jones has alleged that an atmosphere of “toxic bullying” pervaded.
One of the ministers who claimed to be a bullying victim was Carl Sargeant, who is understood to have taken his own life in November, four days after being removed from his post as Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children following unspecified allegations of sexual harassment made against him.
The Welsh Conservatives proposed a motion that would have seen Mr Jones questioned by a committee of AMs about the suggestion he misled the Assembly.
Instead he announced the setting up of an inquiry into the matter by James Hamilton, an independent adviser to the Scottish Government.
When the vote was taken on the Conservative motion for an AM-led inquiry it was narrowly defeated. Ms Williams was present to vote against the proposal. Now correspondence relating to the Vietnam trip’s cancellation has been released to the Welsh Conservatives.
A “line to take” drafted by a Welsh Government press officer said: “While the Welsh Government organised trade mission to Vietnam is still going ahead, owing to other commitments the Cabinet Secretary for Education is no longer able to attend.”
An unnamed official commented on the “line to take”, stating: “Fine by me – it’s fairly neutral although if they work out why this has happened there’ll be the inevitable question about cost of cancellation.”
On the day of the vote, an official sent an email to Ms Williams’ private secretary stating: “We’ve been officially approached now... are we still happy with the line?”
A spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives said: “The public will be rightly miffed at the price tag of the farcical episode. We would suggest the real reason why a Cabinet Secretary was suddenly recalled to the Assembly is because they were whipped into blocking an AM-led inquiry into allegations the First Minister may have misled AMs.”