Tory MS blasted over anti-20mph protest effigy stunt
Emily Price
Natasha Asghar has been blasted for “abuse” and “harassment” after a photo taken on the steps of the Senedd showed her with her arm around the neck of a crude effigy of former deputy minister Lee Waters.
In an apparent act of defiance, she recently posed for photos with a “blanket” and Guy Fawkes figure of the former transport minister whilst meeting with disgruntled road users outside the Welsh Parliament.
Posting the images to Facebook she wrote: “Plenty of blankets at the anti-20mph protest today to keep us nice and warm!”
In another image the stuffed representation of the Labour MS can be seen draped in a blanket with a sign that reads: “Don’t call me a blanket.”
‘Strangle’
A further photo was shared online by a member of the United Voices Senedd Lobby Group who gather regularly in Cardiff Bay to protest the 20mph policy.
The photo was taken outside the Welsh Parliament’s main entrance and shows Ms Asghar kneeling down on the floor with her arm around the neck of the homemade figure.
The caption reads: “Lovely little gathering on the steps for Guy Fawkes night. Sadly no dynamite but nice to see Natasha with a blanket and trying to strangle Liar Waters.”
It was shared on Bluesky by Mr Waters on Wednesday (November 20) who said: “There was me thinking she was giving the effigy a cwtch! But the group in the ‘United Voices’ FB group makes it clear she was ‘trying to strangle Liar Waters’.
“She also wore a blanket as a shawl – which shows what she thinks of the Senedd Standard’s process. There’s a line, and I think this crosses it.”
Labour MS Mick Antoniw says the photo shows an “act of personal abuse” that should have “no place in our politics”
He said: “It is a form of populist harassment and personal denigration – It is unacceptable behaviour.”
‘Absurd’
The shadow transport minister was formally censured by the Senedd in September for using the word “blanket” to describe the 20mph default policy introduced by the Welsh Government.
Ms Asghar refused to back down saying it was “purely absurd” to suggest she had brought the Senedd into disrepute.
The complaint against her was made by Mr Waters – her former shadow counterpart who would regularly do battle with Ms Asghar in the Chamber over the default policy.
Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government former chief legal advisor, says the Tory MS’s behaviour after the censure “shows a contempt for the Senedd.”
He said: “Standards of conduct in the Senedd are dependent on the respect from members for the decisions of the independent Standards commissioner and the Senedd itself.
“Anything less brings the Senedd into disrepute – It is sad and disappointing to seem members arrogantly trashing these decisions. It shows a contempt for the Senedd and the public.”
We asked Natasha Asghar to address claims that she had tried to “strangle” the effigy of Lee Waters. She declined to comment.
The images she posted to her Facebook page have now been edited to crop out the effigy of Lee Waters.
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This is just a furtherance of the extreme abuse Lee Waters and Nia Griffith received over the Stradey Park Hotel fiasco. She and her minuscule fan club, the so called “United Voices Senedd Lobby Group”, who appear to have nothing better to do, should be ashamed of themselves.
I agree. But, sadly, I suspect that in real life this sort of thing actually works. I’m something of a politics anorak, which has led me to subscribe to the websites of certain political polling companies which opt to provide info. to people like me. And, a few weeks back, one of them, Electoral Calculus, published a poll which they’d conducted suggesting that if the Westminster election had taken place a short while after July 4th, Nia Griffith would have lost her Llanelli seat to the Reform UK candidate. Even though Llanelli has returned a Labour MP by now for… Read more »
She declined to comment which is something she should have done previously also. Yes, there was the former First Minister but outside of him, only she and her leader routinely bring our Parliament into disrepute with their appalling behaviour. Two others from their party push the line a bit too but they should look around the whole place and ask themselves who else in here acts like we do? Use that as a guide in future and wind your bloody necks in.
The ‘sadly no dynamite’ threat issued by the blanket bleaters should be investigated.
Can one start a ‘Recall’ petition to have one’s MS replaced? I would have thought that the behaviour of Ms Asghar is so well over the line of acceptable behaviour that a good many of her voters might wish to send her home. After all we do not need ‘Westminster Behaviour’ in the Senedd which is generally a civilised place.
Posing with a bunch of obvious cranks brandishing an effigy of a political opponent is such an obviously inappropriate thing for an MS to do that I’m shocked it’s happened.
An incredible lapse in judgement by Natasha Asghar. Haven’t agreed with her approach to the 20mph issue, but thought this kind of inappropriate nonsense would have been beneath her.
Has she been taking lessons on “how to be pathetic” from ART2Detour?
A petition signed by almost half a million people ( supposedly ), and at every protest held in support of said petition, a crowd of only around a dozen or so people is all that turn up, so the need to maintain media interest in their campaign has now led to this. Utterly pathetic. This is what we have come to expect from this MS, and her party at the Senedd.
Imagine, if you will, a world not entirely unlike our own. A world where all the time and effort and energy expended waging imbecilic culture wars over the 20mph default limit, had instead been expended by the Welsh tory party on advising their constituents about the capacity of local councils to revise the limit, the criteria for changing the limit of a local road back to 30mph, and the best way to approach your local council about it. Which is the exact course of action that would be taken by any politician who actually gave a hoot about their constituents… Read more »
Another disgusting, dishonest publicity stunt. I reckon she wants to be Welsh Conservatives leader and is playing to a reactionary politics to get that
Really poor show siding with such loons, shows how impaired her judgement is as she desperately tries to stay relevant.
The data is in and the policy is working. There’s definitely places where it’s been poorly implemented but shy of tidying up these areas it’s a good policy.
Remember, one side is saying “I want less people to be killed, permanently disabled and seriously injured on our roads, especially children”, and the other side is saying “yeah but journey times are a bit too long as a result”. Is that really the side you want to be on Natasha?