Neil McEvoy has been expelled from the Plaid Cymru group.

The Wasting Mule and BBC report that Controversial AM Neil McEvoy has been expelled from the Plaid Cymru group at the National Assembly.

The party issued a statement which said his behaviour had left colleagues feeling “undermined and demoralised” and that ongoing issues were distracting Plaid Cymru AMs from getting on with their work of serving the people of Wales

A Plaid Assembly group spokesman said:

 “The group has taken the decision to permanently expel Neil McEvoy from the group. The decision was unanimous.
“A statement issued by Neil McEvoy today is full of errors. Firstly it makes inaccurate claims about the reasons for his suspension from the Assembly group.
“As was stated at the time, Neil McEvoy was suspended for breaching standing orders and the group’s code of conduct through unacceptable behaviour.
“Secondly, Neil McEvoy’s public statement this morning saw him once again peddle untruths about the way in which the Plaid Cymru Assembly group operates. Such comments only serve to smear the reputation of colleagues and underline the insincerity of Mr McEvoy’s alleged desire to return to the group.
“In this context, Mr McEvoy is being expelled due to an irrevocable breakdown of trust.
“His ongoing behaviour has left Assembly Member colleagues feeling undermined and demoralised.
“Plaid Cymru representatives’ loyalty first and foremost is to the people of Wales. We will not be distracted from our work of serving them to the best of our ability by such deliberate and sustained sabotage.”

Following the announcement Mr McEvoy said he took the group's decision “with real regret”.
 

“I was elected to be a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member after votes from thousands of people who wanted me to not do politics as usual.
“My focus has always been on holding the Labour government to account and it will continue to be so. I’ve never been interested in fighting with my own colleagues,” he said.
He added: “I’ll keep representing those people who have been left behind and given up on politicians.

Mr McEvoy is something of a hero in some Plaid quarters building up support in Cardiff West  and challenging Labour.

Whilst others are uncomfortable with his populist and aggressive  campaigning  which they see as putting many off the party outside Cardiff West. 

 Mr McEvoy remains a Plaid Cymru party member - although the party has said he is subject to an investigation about complaints about his behaviour.

A petition  against Mr Mcevoy  reinstatement  has received over  20,000 signature

It reads
 

We, the undersigned, call upon the leadership of Plaid Cymru to stand up for women in Wales by not reinstating Neil McEvoy to the Plaid Cymru Assembly Group.
McEvoy's current suspension for bullying a female council worker [1] is only the most recent instance in a long pattern of troubling behaviour towards women, including:
· Attacking Women’s Aid and Safer Wales (organisations that provide lifesaving support to women and children fleeing domestic abuse) in 2011, stating that they were complicit in ‘publicly funded child abuse’. [2] Plaid Cymru suspended McEvoy following these allegations; however, they later reinstated him.
· Using his social media accounts to further accuse women’s domestic abuse support services of harbouring ‘violent or abusive women’. [3]
· In the recent tribunal investigating McEvoy’s bullying of a female council worker, he appointed a barrister who he knew had previously been found to have sexually harassed and bullied a female clerk in his chambers. [4]
· McEvoy’s female colleagues in Plaid Cymru – including Bethan Jenkins AM [5] and former AM Nerys Evans [6] – have either condemned or reported experiencing his bullying and intimidation first-hand. Plaid Cymru candidate Essex Havard has also recently withdrawn from the Cardiff Council elections because he ‘cannot bear’ the prospect of being in the same party as McEvoy, who he calls ‘a bully of women’. [7]
In addition to this proven pattern of bullying and intimidating women and their organisations, McEvoy’s behaviour extends to other groups. For example, in 2013, when he was Deputy Leader of Cardiff Council, he received an official complaint from the Jalalia Mosque in Riverside noting his ‘intimidation and improper behaviour by an elected councillor’. [8]
Having witnessed Mr McEvoy’s latest attempts to plead victimisation, it would be immoral for us to remain silent. With women on the frontline of austerity cuts and domestic abuse, we expect solidarity from our representatives. There is no place in a progressive party for politicians who single out, bully or else denigrate women.
For these reasons, we call upon Plaid Cymru to review their support for Mr McEvoy and take the necessary measures to ensure that he has no platform to attack the already fragile position of women in Wales.

To what extent  this a genuine concern amongst Concerned Welsh Women is open to question rather than political opponents  seeking to derail Mr Mcevoy's  up to now successful climb up the greasy poll of politics could be questioned.

Nevertheless he does seem to have a problem with  bullying behaviour and I wonder if we need such an attitude  in our Assembly.

 I have never met Mr Mcevoy but find his aggressive attitude in sharp contrast the man who actually started Plaid growth in Cardiff West Dr Delme Bowen.

Plaid maybe need more like Delme who managed to garner votes and support wherever he stood without alienating as many potential voters(or even more so) as he won over.

I welcome comments on this but please bear in mind libel laws and sheer decency .