Reform MS accuses Deputy Llywydd of unfair treatment
Emily Price
A Reform Senedd Member has claimed she was unfairly penalised after the Deputy Llywydd reprimanded her for ignoring several prompts to ask her question after exceeding her allotted speaking time.
Gŵyr Abertawe MS Francesca O’Brien said she was “slammed” and “shut down” by Deputy Presiding Officer Kerry Ferguson and alleged that other politicians had been allowed to go “way over their slot”.
The row took place as Ms O’Brien, Reform’s Shadow Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, questioned the minister responsible for the portfolio, Siân Gwenllian.
During Plenary proceedings, party spokespeople may ask the relevant portfolio minister three questions, with one minute allocated for each question.
Members are timed using the Chamber clock, which turns red when their allocated time expires.
Ms O’Brien had been using one of her question slots to suggest that social housing is being allocated in Wales to foreign nationals in substantial numbers.
After speaking over her allowed limit, the Reform MS was prompted by the Deputy Llywydd to come to her question.
Ms O’Brien ignored the instruction and carried on with her speech before being prompted by Ms Ferguson again.
The Reform MS responded saying, “Yes, I’m coming to it, thank you,” before continuing with her speech.
A few seconds later Ms Ferguson intervened, calling for the question again.
Ms O’Brien began reading a lengthy question from a piece of paper as Members of the Senedd urged the Reform MS to hurry up.
Heckling broke out in the Chamber as Ms O’Brien replied: “No”.
She eventually asked the minister if the Welsh Government would amend the allocation of housing and homelessness regulations to restrict eligibility and “give preference to British applicants”.
Ms O’Brien also asked the government to use its legal powers to force social landlords in Wales to “record and publish the nationality of applicants and tenants”.
Before Ms Gwenllian provided a response, the Deputy Llywydd intervened saying: “If I ask for a question, I do expect to hear a question. I don’t expect someone to go 45 seconds over time.”
Ms Ferguson became the Deputy Presiding Officer in May. Although she is a Plaid Cymru Member, her role as the Senedd’s Deputy Llywydd is strictly non-political.
Once elected, the Llywydd and Deputy Llywydd must remain entirely politically impartial at all times, giving up any party-political affiliations in the Chamber to focus solely on the fair running of the Senedd.
Ms O’Brien was not the only Senedd Member that day to be prompted to ask a question because they had run out of time.
Sharing a clip of the exchange to social media, The Reform MS said: “Uncovering the data which Plaid doesn’t want to talk about.
“Many councils don’t even record the nationality of who is living in social & council homes. Who are these thousands of people?
“While waiting lists increase for local families, data is swept under the carpet and when Plaid don’t like what I have to say, I am slammed for going over time.
“Odd, as I’ve seen many others go way over their slot without the same shut down.”
Wales is currently facing a severe social housing crisis, driven by a chronic shortage of homes as demand continues to outstrip supply.
The situation has been exacerbated by rising construction costs and delays in the planning system.
Statistics do not show that non-British nationals are being prioritised over Welsh people or that immigration is responsible for soaring housing waiting lists.
The Deputy Llywydd declined to comment.
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The ‘Kevin and Perry’ party. ‘It’s so unfair’. If a footballer takes half an hour to take a throw in or a goal kick, they get booked. Persist, second yellow card and off. One of their pathetic failing councillors elsewhere admitted on camera that they don’t know what they are doing. The ‘Hate Wales 34’ are only there to hate Wales. Have a great week at the Royal Welsh. Shut your mouth and keep your head down is the best advice. If in need of help, head to the Tory gazebo.
Reform’s playbook involves believing the rules don’t apply to them and when they are reminded that they do, they fake victimhood. Farage has tried the same tactic about the £5 million ‘gift’. However that’s not working out very well for him. Hopefully the same fate will befall O’Brien.
See the game they play? Demean people and blame others.
And sharing it on line, she knows what she is doing.
So giving a speech on how brazenly racist you are is insufficient, you have to behave like a spoilt child and have a tantrum.
Reform have been in the Senedd barely 2 months and I’m sick of their pathetic behaviour already, surely it’s time to kick them out of the Senedd and Cymru.
Poor old Deform, eh? Always the victim.
Reform UK are despicably promoting a widely believed lie that ‘genuine’applicants are being pevented from accessng social housing because, in their terms, ‘foreigners’ (and more particularly those withdarker skins) are being given priority. In this, they clearly do not understand how the allocation system for social housing works. Not only is social housing allocated solely on a needs basis, applicants (who have to prove eligibility to be on a list for social housing in the first place) also have to bid for suitable properties once their name comes to the top of the list. While this is a system far… Read more »
More inane whining from MS Francesca O’Brien, spokeswoman for the Paranoid Party. #ReformUK 🇬🇧 🤡
Thats Rich coming from this SMUG FASCIST
Always the victim
Does she know what a question is?
“Members are timed using the Chamber clock, which turns red when their allocated time expires.”
The offending member’s microphone should also be muted the moment that happens.
Did Voice of Waleswrite Diddums’ question for her?
She’s told blatant lies in the Senedd.
Get her gone and stop them destroying Welsh politics.