Investigation finds MS ‘did breach Senedd conduct code’

AN INVESTIGATION into allegations that a Labour MS carried out a “vulgar and grossly offensive personal attack” on social media has found he did breach the Senedd’s code of conduct.

Hefin David, the Senedd Member for Caerphilly, apologised and deleted the tweet hours after publishing it.

The recipient did not make the complaint, but a report by the standards commissioner Douglas Bain concluded that he had breached the Senedd’s code of conduct.

There will now be a vote in the Welsh Parliament next week as to whether he should be formally reprimanded.

Mr David admitted to the commissioner that the tweet was inappropriate.

The committee decided not to include the contents of the tweet in its report “as we consider it may cause further distress to the subject and their family to do so, particularly as they were not the complainant”.

It is the second time that Mr David has been reprimanded for an inappropriate tweet. He previously called someone an “utter knob” on Twitter and used the Welsh derogatory term “coc oen”, meaning “lamb’s cock”.

Mr Bain said in his report to the standards committee: “Senedd members are rightly required to show leadership and to be exemplars of good behaviour.”

He said “abusive use of social media reflects badly on him but also tends to bring the Senedd into disrepute” and concluded that Mr David’s conduct “fell very far below the required standards”.

Mr Bain says that Mr David has told him he has taken steps to prevent “any further misuse of social media” and that he had urged him to “take care in his use of that medium”.