Carwyn clashes with Leighton Andrews over bullying claim

FIRST Minister Carwyn Jones has clashed with an ex-minister who was once one of his closest political allies over whether complaints were made about the conduct of Welsh Government staff in 2014.

Leighton Andrews managed Mr Jones’ successful campaign eight years ago to be elected leader of Welsh Labour.

But now the pair are at loggerheads over whether bullying took place on the Ministerial fifth floor of the Senedd three years ago.

Mr Andrews, who was Public Services Minister at the time, has alleged that Carl Sargeant was a victim of bullying.

During First Minister’s Questions Mr Jones denied that Mr Andrews made a complaint about staff conduct in 2014. Mr Andrews insisted that he did.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies asked: “Did Leighton Andrews make a complaint of any nature in 2014 about the conduct or behaviour of members of staff in the Welsh Government or your office?”

Mr Jones replied: “No.”

He later added: “I have said no allegation was made by Leighton Andrews to me in regard to bullying.

“Were there issues that arose? Yes, there would be conflicts now and again between people, disputes about the titles of bills, for example.

“When you have a talented team of people sometimes they would rub up against each other.”

Mr Andrews then hit back on Twitter, saying: “In November 2014, I told the First Minister face to face that I believed that the code for special advisers had been broken.

“I asked him to carry out a formal investigation. He said he would.”

Later, in a BBC Wales interview, Mr Jones attacked Mr Andrews, saying: “There is a way of doing this properly and a way of not doing it properly. The way of not doing it properly is to fire off random tweets in the course of a day making random allegations – how on earth can we respond to that?

“Some kind of trial by Twitter is not a sensible way of doing it,”

Mr Jones also said that Mr Andrews’ nickname when he was in government was “Grumpy”.

Mr Andrews responded on Twitter, saying: “As I have already said, I will give evidence [to the inquiry into whether Mr Jones misled the Assembly]. I wouldn’t be taking to Twitter if @fmwales hadn’t said what he said in the Chamber.”

He said Mr Jones’ comment that he had complained about a lot of things and that his nickname was “Grumpy” was “pathetic”.

In his TV interview Mr Jones defended his treatment of Mr Sargeant, saying: “I’m confident that I did everything as I should have done. Could I have done something different? No.”