Labour MS apologises for Tory farmer heckle
Emily Price
A Labour backbencher has apologised for telling a Tory MS to “go back to the young farmers” during a heated heckling exchange in the Senedd.
FMQs descended into a bout of jeering on Tuesday afternoon (February 18) as the leader of the opposition Darren Millar quizzed the First Minister on the treatment of Welsh pensioners.
During the exchange, former deputy minister Lee Waters could be heard calling out from the Labour side of the Chamber telling the Tory leader to “go back to Washington”.
Mr Millar recently returned from a visit to the US capital where he took part in a prayer breakfast attended by President Donald Trump.
Farmers
Hitting back at Mr Waters, Tory backbencher Tom Giffard was caught on Senedd TV cameras laughing along with his colleague Sam Kurtz after telling the Labour MS to “go back to Sustrans” – a cycling charity he used to work for.
Although the Tory taunt about Mr Waters’ CV came from Mr Giffard – the Labour MS for Llanelli retaliated by telling Mr Kurtz to “go back to the young farmers”.
The Young Farmers is a program for young people to learn about farming, the natural world, and animal care.
It also helps young people build confidence and make friends.
Apology
Mr Kurtz was born and raised on a family beef farm in Pembrokeshire.
The shadow economy minister took to social media following the Senedd heckling match.
In a post to X, Mr Kurtz said: “I just got told to ‘go back to the young farmers’ by a Labour backbencher in the Chamber.
“I actually have no words to describe their contempt for challenge.”
He later updated the tweet to say that Mr Waters’ had emailed him to apologise.
Mr Kurtz told Nation.Cymru he had “accepted the apology” and that the matter was now closed.
We invited Mr Waters and Mr Giffard to comment but they both declined.
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This the Mr Millar that is supporting a Putin stooge in the Whitehouse and same 47 has multiple convictions and been done for abuse? I think the next question he (Mr Millar) gets from the press should be about his visit to a putin apologist.
Instead of being in his rightful place of employment…
Due Diligence need at all times regarding this man’s finances…
Trwmp and his unholy version of the teachings of Christ before the people of Cymru…
He needs to be got rid of…
Pause for thought …… Millar and others are ineffective as Opposition so maybe it’s in their best interests to spend time elsewhere to get a clearer picture of the world they will be cut loose into in 2026. Something like career reorientation before the exit …
I thought about it sometime ago while not really enjoying my last coffee in his mate’s cafe by the sea…You don’t humour or negotiate with cancer…
The standard of debate and rhetoric in our Wales senedd is really amazing. Razor edged. No wonder Reform is languishing in the polls.
Ah yes, thank you so much for this groundbreaking insight, Nation.Cymru. Without this explainer, I’m sure your readership would be utterly lost on what the Young Farmers do. *”The Young Farmers is a program for young people to learn about farming, the natural world, and animal care. It also helps young people build confidence and make friends.”* Right, of course. Though I’m not entirely sure how tearing around Pembrokeshire at night at ridiculous speeds with Dixie horns blaring is helping to *build confidence.* Seems like a fair retort from Lee Waters—though I doubt they’ll be sending him a Christmas card… Read more »
Bit rich of Sam Kurtz – didn’t he tweet odious comments about the Gay community a few years ago. Pot – kettle – black?
The Labour Party,wherever they are in control.,have ever been supporters of farming and the countryside in general except when they introduced the “Right to Roam Act” and everyone knows what that was about!
Go on…
I know, it’s tragic. But let’s be honest—the vast majority of farmers vote Tory and never had much sympathy for others when they were against the wall (miners, for example).
For decades, militant French farmers shaped EU policy in their favour, and Welsh farmers benefited from it too. But now? We’re out of the EU, thanks in part to a majority of farmers voting for Brexit—an act so staggeringly self-defeating that turkeys voting for Christmas would look like *Mastermind* finalists in comparison.
All this “go back to the young farmers”, “go back to Sustrans” and ““go back to Washington” is a bit junior school playground, surely!
But as Lee Waters is one of the rather few politicians I genuinely warm to, I probably won’t hold it against him!
That’s why I apologised, it was all rather silly.
I was involved in local politics – though not in Wales – for quite a while from the late ’80s to around 2012, so I do know how passions can suddenly rise to an extent that sensible prudence can be momentarily overwhelmed. For sure it isn’t edifying, but, given human nature, it happens – and, in hard reality, it’s not usually cataclysmic. And I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I regret your decision to stand down from Senedd politics. I’m neither a Labour voter nor a Labour supporter, but nevertheless I still think that you’ll be a… Read more »