Watch: The extraordinary scenes in the Senedd as Labour MS ‘storms out’
There were extraordinary scenes in the Senedd today (4 June) when Labour MS Hefin David appeared to storm out of the chamber.
The Caerphilly member had been warned by the Llywydd, Elin Jones, after he repeatedly heckled former First Minister Mark Drakeford in a passionate debate over school holiday reforms.
Mr Drakeford had launched a stinging rebuke of the Welsh Government’s latest u-turn on school holiday reforms after Education Secretary Lynne Neagle announced the planned overhaul would be shelved this morning.
The Llywydd was forced to intervene as the former First Minister was speaking due to heckling from the Labour MS.
Mr David branded the the Presiding Officer Elin Jones “ridiculous” for allowing Mark Drakeford to continue to speak.
She said: “Excuse me, don’t question my decision to allow Mark Drakeford to – You said, ‘This is ridiculous’, me allowing Mark Drakeford to continue.
“It’s not. I’ve allowed you discretion time after time to continue on important issues for yourself, so remember that, Hefin David. I’m allowing Mark Drakeford to continue.
“I’ve allowed you discretion time after time to continue on important issues for yourself, so remember that, Hefin David.”
Mr David, the member for Caerphilly, then left the chamber, and Sioned Williams, the Plaid Cymru member for South West Wales, accused him on X, formerly Twitter, of having “stormed out”.
She said: “The tensions in the Labour Senedd group just spilt over in dramatic form – Mark Drakeford launched full-throated attack on the Education Cabinet Secretary rolling back on Labour manifesto commitment.”
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr David denied storming out, saying he “left the chamber briefly” as is common during long plenary sessions.
He said he had been trying to intervene to tell Llywydd that the former first minister had gone three minutes over the time allotted for backbenchers on statements, which is one minute.
He added the longest he had been allowed was one minute 30 seconds.
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Today is the 4th of June, D-Day is the 6th of June…
This “ Valley Boy “ old Labour tactic was always used during the days of the old WJEC . Shouting, tantrums and storming off – when anyone occasionally expressed their own rather than the Labour party line. Old and bad habits many of us hoped had passed. Obviously not !
The problem with the labour party if they don’t get their own way they throw their toys out of the pram stamp their feet and scream like children.
Like RISHIE SUNAK THEN …AND HIS INFAMOUS LIES LAST NIGHT 🌙 😳
Hefin David does not like being corrected. He has a long history of rather immature responses to those who have dared to challenge him.
He is not fit to be an MS. I’d really be interested to see his record of achievement and what precisely he has done in office.
I think this is a terrible idea. They want to change the holidays just to prove they can. Less in the hotter weather and more in the cold. Not great. Let the children be children for a while.
Wales needs real political change so so badly. We’ve already suffered 14 years of anglocentric idiocratic Tory misrule where hundreds of billions have been spent, and wasted I might add, on England & English infrastructure to the detriment of Wales. Where in Whitehall to become a minister must be an idiot, accept that corruption is now regarded the norm, lying part of the job description, and being drunk, playing on children’s swing set at No-10 whilst vomiting , having sex on tables and taking class-A drugs during the Covid pandemic is merely a gathering and in no way a party… Read more »
well said, and mustn’t forget preferably an old etonian idiot and sky high on drugs!
Westminster more or less irrelevant to us.
Whatever the reason, in the era of Drakeford’s leadership Welsh Labour in the Senedd seemed to cohere. It’s not taken long under the new regime, not just for the integrity of the new leadership to be called into question, but for the party’s coherence to erode as well.
Lesson in humility for me, because when Welsh Labour chose Drakeford as leader I thought that he’d be dire, and he turned out not to be. And then I thought Gething would be a respectable and impresssive first minister, and it already appears that he may not be.
John, you have a humility which our current First Minister sorely lacks. Have you thought about standing for election?!? 🙂 Political discourse could do with a few more people who can admit when they got something wrong.
Gracious of you to express that sentiment, but that’s a ship which for me has now definitively sailed – even assuming that it might at one time just maybe have been seaworthy!
I’ll be 79 in August and, as tends often to happen to all of us in older age, my health’s declining and the reality is that it’s highly unlikely to improve significantly. Too late for aspirations of that nature.
Indeed. The wheels appear to be coming off remarkably fast.
Yes, they certainly do – sad to see.
Who on earth voted for this guy, and more importantly, why??
Because it’s South Wales and the voters saw his name next to Labour on the ballot paper.
Drakeford, who emptied the Welsh coffers, has the audacity to criticise others for what “he believes is wrong”. All though his time as First Minister he got EVERYTHING wrong & wouldn’t allow criticism. Plus 1 minute 30 seconds is NOT I minute as the rules declare!