Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate works for payday loan company that charges interest of up 93.8%
Martin Shipton
A Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate has been criticised after it emerged that he works for a payday loan company charging interest of up to 93.8% that is owned by a billionaire under investigation for fraud.
Neil Roberts, who will be fourth on Plaid’s closed list in the Caerdydd Penarth “super constituency”, is also under fire for a series of historic social media posts, in one of which he called Donald Trump a “c**t” (with the word spelled out).
Mr Roberts came third in this month’s Cardiff council by-election in Grangetown, behind the Green Party and Labour, but ahead of Reform.
‘Concerning tweets’
A political source sent us material relating to Mr Roberts, stating: “It has come to my attention that … Neil Roberts shared a number of concerning tweets from a recently-deleted (November 2024) Twitter/X account.
“He then, apparently, set up a new account in January 2025 using the same handle: @neil_roberts
“Roughly 4,500 tweets from the account ‘s first iteration survive on the internet archive. Having looked through around 10% of these, I have found dozens of offensive/concerning tweets.
“His deleted tweets range from the highly sexual to the grossly offensive such as joking about the death of Captain Tom Moore [the ex-soldier who undertook sponsored walks in his garden to raise funds for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the pandemic] and calling the USA “a nation of dimwitted charlatans”. Any person who wished to dig deeper would inevitably find many more such tweets.
“In addition to these concerns we then have Neil’s choice of career and employer. He claims to work in financial services but in fact he works for a payday loan company owned by a man under investigation for fraud during Covid. This seems to be in conflict with Plaid Cymru’s stated aim of lifting children out of poverty.
“Grangetown’s two MSOAs [Middle Layer Super Output Areas] are ranked 4th and 8th in Wales for child poverty yet Neil works as a compliance officer for ‘Loans by MAL’. This company, owned by disgraced Michelle Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman, charges up to a whopping 93.8% APR on its loans.
“Over the last four years (Neil’s tenure there) the amount of money loaned by this company to society’s poorest has grown from about £60,000 to over £8m.
“The voters of Cardiff would be shocked to discover that this seemingly-caring candidate is growing rich off the misery of those in poverty. There is a tweet of him celebrating the purchase of his new Audi.
“Plaid Cymru has several times criticised the vetting process of other parties, I would question theirs based on what I have learnt of Mr Roberts.” In the aftermath of the Presidential election won by Donald Trump in November 2024, Mr Roberts interacted with an American who posted a message wondering why people not living in the US were panicking more than those who lived there. He responded: “The fact that you are stupid enough to tweet this just proves our point that you’re a country of dimwitted charlatans.”
American
Responding to another American on X who asked why the Brits are so into American politics, Mr Roberts replied: “Because we know a c**t when we see one.”
And when GB News presenter Tom Harwood published a tweet that asked: “Did MPs really vote to dump raw sewage in our rivers?”, the response came from Mr Roberts, who said: “You truly are the Queen of odious twinks, aren’t there.”
Earlier this year the chair of the UK Covid Inquiry ruled that evidence related to PPE Medpro, the firm linked to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman, would be heard in a closed, private session. The inquiry undertook four weeks of hearings into decisions to buy Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.
Prejudice
Inquiry Chair Baroness Hallett said she was imposing the restriction as she was satisfied there was a risk of prejudice to criminal proceedings if “sensitive evidence” was heard in public.
Victims’ groups and media outlets, including the BBC, had argued the dangers were overstated, given the early stage of the police investigation and the material already in the public domain.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) opened an investigation into PPE Medpro in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE.
The company was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m after Baroness Mone recommended the firm to ministers during the pandemic.Baroness Mone, 52, and Mr Barrowman, 59, have denied wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for Plaid Cymru said: “We won’t be commenting on this matter,”
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How in earth can Plaid Cymru claim to be the party of the people of Wales when their candidates make money out of our poverty. Those interest rates are indefensible and working for a man who made a fortune out of the pandemic is shocking. If this was a Reform candidate Plaid would go nuts!!
That’s why Plaid members have only put him fourth!
But the candidate in the target ward of Grangetown and on the list of approved candidates
There should be questions such as ‘Why is he still on the candidates list ?’
The palestine solidarity campaign revealed that Billions of pounds from local govt pension schemes have been invested in companies linked to arms manufacturers supplying the IDF – is everyone who works in local govt complicit in Netanyahu’s genocide?
Another one chaired the steering group of an investigation into himself that “cleared” himself of embezzlement, amongst other things, just a couple of years ago.
I do want to see Plaid do well, but their vetting process seems lacking when embracing such obvious political optic red flags.
Any chance of your naming this alleged person, or this the usual Labour slander
I agree
I would not be so sure it’s Labour.
There is someone out there who has a big beef with PC.
To the point of obsession. 😉
A serious allegation but do you have any proof? Sorry but if you’re not prepared to go on the record you could be making it up for all anyone knows.
I’ve heard this also. Obviously you can’t name on a public forum.
What an odious creature himself! Plaid Cymru can’t win elections but are the tops for hypocrisy!!
He right about trump but pay day loans? Come on plaid, do better. Between the two of you (Labour and Plaid) you have an opportunity. Ref get in you are toast.
Need to tighten up on this stuff PC. Better party governance is vital if you’re going to win.
It says a lot that he deleted his twitter account! Make one wonder what else was on there! Everyone needs to pay the bills but by facilitating what is just a ‘respectable’ loan sharks he is stopping others from paying their bills and buying the basics. How can you ever justify that amount of interest?
Why is it no comment from Plaid? They should cone out strongly against such companies
They would comment quickly enough if it was another party!
This is the standard response under Rhun, never give a response to bad news. They just wait 48 hours until it’s out the news cycle. Rhun is a journalist so knows how these things work!
It’s fine in opposition but disastrous if you’re the FM and leadership is needed on matters
Just waiting for some muck to get raked out on Rhun or another leading Plaid member. Bound to happen as all these guys are suckers for a deal that looks good at the time but about as straight as a camel’s back !
I dare say there might be some issues in particular with housing!
Plaid seems to have a policy of ” no debate” on anything that shows it in a poor light. Doesn’t bode well for a party with ambition to govern does it?
No doubt Plaid will have another fit of fake outrage when their own lack of diligence is exposed. Happy to s**g off others but ever so weak to address their own shortcomings.
As you predicted…. former Plaid AM blames Labour rather than accepting any fault!
Chris Franks needs a reality check. He’s nuts on social media!
This is the problem with behaving so sanctimonious when the Tories or reform are involved in sleaze. When it’s their side who’ve been caught out, the vast majority of public just think ‘they’re all the same’ and you further erode trust in politicians and democracy.
As far as I understand, plenty more candidates are going to be potentially be uncovered between now and the election.
We already have a convicted drink driver who was over twice the legal limit and a glorified loan sharks with very dubious tweets on that Plaid list already?
And then there’s Eluned Morgan who’s been fined for speeding on countless occasions.
What on earth is this about an alternative account on twitter where he exposed himself?! This is a criminal offence.
My marriage was destroyed and we lost our home with three children when my second husband had a pay day loan with a much smaller interest rate than Mr Roberts’ company.
I don’t care about his tweets, plenty of people send offensive and sexual tweets but I do care how his company takes advantage of poor people to make huge amount of profit. How can he be candidate for a ‘socialist’ party?
This is a serious mistake by Plaid, but it also shows the weakness of the closed list system that has been set up for the Senedd elections. A much better system which could have been used allows voters to rank candidates thus meaning that they are voting for sombody not just for the party. The system is the Single Transferable Vote (STV) and, whilst quite processing heavy, could be easily computerised. (See: https://electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/single-transferable-vote/)
100%
There are good and bad people in all communities.
…And it happens in all political parties.
I remember some thirty years ago when there were candidates(s) in London’s Tower Hamlets that engaged in authoritarian racist comments and they were found also to be Lib Dem members.
The point is that the Liberal Democrats quickly removed and expelled those people from their party for opposing their party’s policies on such constitutional matters.
As a party that has values of liberal democracy, Plaid Cymru should deal with this matter in the same way.
Not sure I like Neil Roberts’ employer, but I can think of far more unpleasant and obscene things to call Donald Trump – that surely can’t be held against him. He also lost Grangetown, where he should have done far better; lucky he’s only fourth on Plaid’s list with Anna Brychan and Keira Marshall as top two candidates; the only ones likely to be elected. At fourth, he won’t be selected
I think calling Trump the C word is the least of his worries
I am a newish member of Plaid Cymru. Given the overwhelming right-wing bias of the British media, and the fact that they lose no opportunity to attack anyone remotely left wing, it is so important that all left – wing politicians (whether elected or not) do not give them any ammunition. It is equally important that Plaid and other left parties do proper checks on their candidates.
As for the candidates and elected politicians, my advice is simple and easily followed; “don’t be a dick”!
“In addition to these concerns we then have Neil’s choice of career and employer”…..unlike numerous folk connected to labour in Wales not everyone has a choice of a cushy job in the third sector. And how on earth is Mr Roberts responsible for anything doug barrowman might have done during the covid pandemic?
Left wingers and hypocrisy seems to go hand in hand, I see our Angie has just bought as small holiday pad for £800,000 .
No hypocrisy from right-wingers of course, since they have no morals to live up to and are blatant about their selfishness.
Angela Rayner is a liberal, not a leftist. Learn the difference.
This is what happens when you defenestrate people like Neil McEvoy. Need to check who’s still in the room before chucking someone out of the window.
Couldn’t care less about the Trump insult, but predatory payday loans? Come on man…
I see this person insulted ALL Americans too – charming fellow.
Oh for goodness sake. What on earth are they thinking.
Neil Roberts also voted for Brexit and voted for Fararge’s Party in 2019 Euro elections and the Conservatives in the 2019 General.
Is this true?!
See this:
NR — Postimages
It’s called Democracy, incase you did’nt know
Research shows that a third of those in Wales and Scotland who want independence also supported Brexit. The anomaly between Plaid and Brexit might not be as stark as you might imagine. He may be more to the right than most Plaid members but I don’t think they should exclude anyone who broadly embraces the party’s fundamental policies, just because they don’t agree with every single one of them. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find a party out there that represents your views on all major policies. To appeal to the majority, all parties (including Plaid) will have to field… Read more »
He’ll be right at home working for Plaid then
The tweets seem like fair comment. The job is more of a criticism.