Scandal should not dominate campaign

THERE is no doubt that former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns is in a precarious position.

But his difficulty is entirely of his own making.

The scandal that has blown up over the behaviour of Ross England, his former office manager, at a rape trial is rightly attracting attention from across the UK.

Mr England was severely criticised by the trial judge for causing it to collapse because of prejudicial evidence he gave that was intended to help the case of the defendant.

It is now clear that the judge was furious with Mr England, and blamed him for the trial’s abandonment, which led to immense suffering for the victim, who had to wait for justice until the man who raped her was convicted at a new trial.

After initially distancing himself from the matter, it became clear from an email leaked to the BBC that Mr Cairns in fact knew that Mr England was responsible for the collapse of the original trial.

Several months later, in the knowledge of what had happened, Mr Cairns endorsed Mr England as the Conservative candidate for the Senedd in his own Vale of Glamorgan constituency.

Yesterday, after emerging from two days of seclusion, Mr Cairns felt unable to offer a personal apology to the rape victim.

It seemed clear from the way he reacted when asked questions that he is more concerned with trying to save his political career than with the welfare of the woman who was raped.

This all comes at a difficult time from Mr Cairns’ point of view, with nominations for General Election candidates having to be submitted by next Thursday.

Yet many of his own constituents will not be convinced that he should be standing for re-election at all.

Mr Cairns justifies his lack of candour over this appalling issue by saying it is under investigation by the Civil Service, and insisting that he will be exonerated.

This evasive approach is entirely unacceptable and he must explain his knowledge of the matter from start to finish. Then his constituents will be in a better position to judge whether they can bring themselves to vote for him or not.

The alternative is for him to bow out of politics and allow his party to select a candidate to replace him before next week’s deadline.

An unsavoury scandal like this ought not to be allowed to dominate the election campaign.