Will Welsh Tories end practice of giving jobs to family members?
The Welsh Tories want to cut the cost of politics – so Will Hayward asked if they would stop employing their own family...
THE leader of the Welsh Conservatives has vowed to “end the Assembly gravy train”.
Talking at the party’s conference in Llandudno yesterday, Paul Davies said that if the Tories were in government in Wales they would “cut the cost of politics”.
“We will seek to freeze the Assembly Commission’s budget for the full five-year term,” he said. “There will be no increase in the number of politicians in Wales under my leadership.
“I will reshape the government too. I will reduce the size of the Welsh Government from 14 ministers to a magnificent seven. A 50% cent saving on day one.”
There are certainly those who see the Welsh Assembly as a gravy train.
One major criticism is that there are 17 Assembly Members and seven Welsh MPs who currently employ members of their own families at the public’s expense.
This practice is banned in Westminster and the Assembly, but a loophole in Assembly rules means that if a family member is already in post they can stay until 2026.
More than half of the Tory AMs in the Assembly employ family members.
Both the current leader, Paul Davies, and the previous leader, Andrew RT Davies, employ members of AMs’ families.
Paul Davies employs two members of other Members’ families and RT Davies employs his wife, Julia, on a band one salary (up to £35,182). She has been in the post since 2007.
South Wales East Conservative AM Mohammad Asghar has employed his wife, Firdaus, as a case worker on 22.2 hours a week since April 2013, and his daughter, Natasha, as senior communications officer for 10 hours a week.
Originally a Plaid AM, he defected to the Conservatives in 2009, admitting at the time that he did so because he was told he could not employ his daughter as a press officer. This meant he became the first AM to switch parties since the Assembly was set up.
Following Mr Davies’ comments, the Western Mail contacted the Welsh Conservatives to see if “ending the gravy train” applied to employing their own family.
We asked if the Conservatives will be banning the practice of employing family members. And if so, how quickly will they be bringing this in?
In response to our phone call and emails the Welsh Conservative Assembly Group declined to comment.
However, of all the parties in the Assembly the party with the highest percentage of its AMs choosing to employ their family is the Brexit Party.
Three of their four AMs employ family members all in the highest or second-highest wage bands.
The Brexit Party’s David Rowlands AM employs both his wife and daughter. Freemason Rowlands had previously left his daughter off the list of employees and subsequently blamed one of his aides for the oversight.
This means that the Brexit Party employ as many family members as they have AMs.
Labour AMs employ more family members than any other party with eight – however, this is a much smaller figure relative to the total number of AMs the party has (29).
Plaid has banned the practice (which was the catalyst for Mohammad Asghar leaving) and they have accused the Tories of a populist play for power.
Plaid Cymru’s Delyth Jewell AM said: “This is a pathetic attempt at a populist play for power from Paul Davies.
“Paul Davies doesn’t believe any of this stuff. In fact, he’s being completely hypocritical. Under the Tories in Westminster, the civil service has increased substantially and in the Senedd the Tories employ more family members than any other party.
“They don’t want to end the gravy train. They are the gravy train.
“Endless polling has shown that people in Wales want more powers, not less. The Tories will soon find out come May 2021 that they are on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of the argument.”