Andrew RT Davies threatened with sanction after breaking Senedd rules yet again

Emily Price 

Former Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has been threatened with a cumulative sanction after he was found to have broken Senedd rules yet again.

Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain received a complaint in November after the Tory MS failed to declare an interest whilst appealing to the First Minister to “stand up for Wales” on inheritance tax changes for farmers.

Mr Davies’ plea came shortly after he posted a video to social media explaining how the Labour policy will affect his own business.

The South Wales Central MS is a partner of a farm business called TJ Davies & Sons and owns farmland and buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Concerns were raised that he was using the Senedd to lobby for his own interests.

‘Surprising’

Members of the Senedd are required to make a declaration on the floor of the Chamber if they have a direct interest in any matter they raise whilst taking part in proceedings.

The general principal is that a declaration should be made if the Member will “gain financial advantage greater than that which might accrue to the electorate generally.”

In a report published on Wednesday (January 29) the Senedd’s Standard’s Committee concluded that Mr Davies had failed to comply with rules.

The Standards Commissioner said he found it “most surprising” that “an experienced member” had considered whether he should declare an interest – but had decided not to.

Mr Davies argued that it was “no secret” he is a farmer because he discusses it publicly frequently.

The Committee concluded that Mr Davies’ choice to not declare an interest was as a result of misinterpretation rather than “seeking to purposefully conceal an interest”.

Series

But the cross party Committee also noted that the reprimand was the latest in a series of breaches of the Senedd’s Code of Conduct by the Conservative MS.

Mr Davies has been warned that if he is reprimanded again he could be hit with a cumulative sanction.

This could mean that the next time he is investigated, the Committee will consider his breaches as a whole.

The report stated: “The Commissioner for Standards and the Committee have dealt with a number of complaints relating to the Member during the Sixth Senedd, all of which have been of a relatively minor nature.

“Repeated breaches, even of a minor nature, are a cause of concern for this Committee and suggest a disregard for the decisions it makes.

“Should the Committee find the Member to have breached the Code of Conduct in future, the total number of breaches made by the Member will be taken into consideration, which is likely to result in the recommendation of a sanction that reflects the totality of the breaches.”

Mr Davies received a rap on the knuckles in October after he was judged to have brought the Senedd into disrepute by calling Wales’ 20mph speed limit a “blanket” policy on social media.

‘Blatant lie’

He was accused of shrugging off the complaint when he didn’t show up in the Chamber to respond to the official censure.

In a separate report in October, he was also found to have breached the Code of Conduct when he tweeted “a blatant lie” that was “misleading and dangerous”.

Mr Davies had shared a post from the Guido Fawkes website which claimed a Welsh Government press release had celebrated “birthing people”.

But the Standards Commissioner found that there was no such press release.

Mr Davies argued that “although he had personally composed and posted the tweet, he had not written the text copied from the article published in Guido Fawkes.”

The Committee said the Tory MS had not carried out sufficient due diligence before posting his comments”.