North Wales MS Mark Isherwood, a member of the Senedd’s Business Committee, has slammed Labour and Plaid Cymru Members of the Senedd for this afternoon voting to pass an amendment to Standing Orders, which will restrict the creation of new political groups.
Speaking in the Senedd this afternoon on the ‘Motion to amend Standing Orders: Definition of Political Groups’, before voting against it, Mr Isherwood described the proposed amendment “as nasty, high-handed and domineering, exercising arbitrary and overbearing control over others”.
He said:
“As the Business Committee’s Report on this states ‘this proposal does not have the unanimous support of the Business Committee. The proposal was made by Rebecca Evans MS (the Trefnydd) and supported by Sian Gwenllian MS who together carry 39 votes on the Committee. Mark Isherwood MS and Caroline Jones MS, comprising a total of 14 votes, do not support the proposal and support retaining the current Standing Order’.
“On the pretext that ‘the Fifth Senedd has seen unprecedented fluidity in the membership, formation and dissolution of political groups’, an unholy alliance between Labour and Plaid Cymru claims ‘that this level of fluidity is undesirable’ and that the automatic creation of new political groups in what is supposed to be this People’s Parliament should be restricted ‘to those consisting of 3 or more Members belonging to the same registered political party that won a seat or seats in the most recent Senedd general election’, unless the ‘Presiding Officer is satisfied that exceptional circumstances apply’.
“Although this proposal would be as much to the partisan benefit of my Party as to Labour and Plaid Cymru, it is clearly targeted in an entirely unseemly and unfitting way, exhibiting the mindset of the playground bully, rather than the responsible Politician who recognises that the measure of a representative democracy is how it treats the minorities within.
“Effective checks and balances within representative democratic systems are essential if those systems are to sustain, yet this proposal seeks to undermine this fundamental principle.
“As my colleagues in the Welsh Conservative Official Opposition have said to me:
“We should stick to current arrangements. These already give the Llywydd some discretion and are fair to smaller parties”.
“New Parties can and do emerge in vibrant democracies like Wales as has been demonstrated throughout the Senedd’s existence”.
“AND ‘Ouch – this is ‘gerrymandering’ at its worst’ - where gerrymandering is designed to give political parties an unfair advantage and keep bad incumbents in power.
“I therefore say to the Members opposite: Before you follow your Party voting Whips on this matter, please ask yourselves whether this is really the road you want this young Parliament, this Welsh Parliament, this Senedd, to travel down.”
Speaking after the vote, Mr Isherwood added:
“That Labour and Plaid Cymru Members then voted to pass this anti-democratic proposal is both very telling and extremely alarming.”
