Thursday 20 February 2020

Leader of Welsh Tories agrees to pay £40,000 legaal costs.

For some reason the news that the he leader of the Welsh Conservatives agreed to pay £40,000 in costs and a nominal £2 in damages in settlement of his legal dispute with one of his AMs. has not been intensively covered by the Welsh Media
ITV however  tells us that

Nick Ramsay had sued Paul Davies but the two men reached agreement earlier this month, bringing the case to an end.
As well as the payments, a High Court order declared that the parties agreed that Mr Ramsay ‘was never lawfully suspended’ from the Conservative Assembly group.
Mr Davies had taken the action after Mr Ramsay had been arrested at his home in Raglan in Monmouthshire at around 8pm on New Year's Day.
He was released from custody the following afternoon, with Gwent Police stating that he would face no further action, but he wasn't readmitted to the group at that time.
In an unusual case, the AM then sued the Assembly group leader, Paul Davies and at an initial hearing in Bristol on 31st January Judge Jonathan Russen QC ordered the suspension to be lifted ahead of further hearings.
He’d said, “In my judgement, it is appropriate that he is restored to the membership of the group.” Mr Ramsay’s lawyer, David Lock QC had argued that Mr Davies "lacked the power" to maintain the suspension and had not conformed to the rules of the group's constitution.
Following that decision Nick Ramsay returned to his role in the Senedd but difficulties remained within the Conservative group with Mr Davies staying away from group meetings on legal advice.
The two men announced that they had reached agreement on 13th February with both saying they were pleased the matter had been resolved. At the time, Mr Davies added that it was “clear that there is a need to review the disciplinary processes within the Welsh Conservative group in order to ensure that they are fit for purpose in the future."
Neither the Welsh Conservatives nor Nick Ramsay wished to comment on reports of the details of the agreement.

One wonders if it was the UK  leader  Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson , who had suspended one of his MPs , in similar circumstance , would the judiciary come to the same conclusion?

Clearly since the bouts of scandals over the last decade and the media outrage has seen all political parties acting swiftly to suspend anyone who might be seen to have damaged the Party with their actions especially if it involved the police.

Paul Davies may have been too slow to restore "the whip" to Mr Ramsay after it became clear that he was nor facing charges .

This actions may have seen the likelyhood of any Tory Party investigation into Mr Ramsay's arrest unlikely.

What it has done is weaken the authority of the Tories in the Assembly and more than likely widen divisions the party in the senedd .

With a year to go until the Senedd  elections the possibility of a challenge to Paul Davies 18 month tenure cannot be ruled out .






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