WELSH Labour Special Advisers are once again under fire – this time for breaching the Special Adviser Code of Conduct by briefing on party political matters.
Labour SpAd – Huw Price – has been caught red-handed breaching the code of conduct, describing himself as a “Welsh Labour Spokesperson” and issuing overtly party political lines using his taxpayer funded Welsh Government email address.
Mark Reckless AM has called for the Code of Conduct to be applied and for disciplinary action to be taken.
Lee Canning of the Taxpayers Alliance warned that a private sector employee “would be disciplined and probably dismissed for such actions”.
Special Advisers are allowed to represent Ministers’ views on government policy to the media – but the Code of Conduct is explicit in its ruling that “briefing on purely party political matters must be handled by the Party machine.”
The Code of Conduct continues, stressing that “All contacts with the media should be authorised by the First Minister or his media advisor, and should be conducted with propriety and consideration for the reputation of the Government as a whole at all times.”
The request sought all emails between Welsh Government special advisers and email addresses ending with bbc.co.uk or mediawales.co.uk – and the correspondence can be read in full online – It includes an email in which Huw Price issues a party political quote criticising the Welsh Conservative local government launch – describing himself as a “Welsh Labour Spokesperson”.
He also appears to make implicit reference to Mark Reckless’ recent defection from UKIP to the Welsh Conservative Assembly Group in an exchange with a journalist, and in the quote itself – which is clearly party political in nature. A contention to which force is added by the response his remarks got from a Western Mail reporter.
- He describes the Welsh Conservative manifesto as “a checklist of reckless failure”;
- Claims that Wales’ only Conservative council has “failed” local people;
- Claims that a Conservative council “took a knife to front line services”;
- Calls on voters to vote for a “fair deal with Welsh Labour, or reckless failure with a Tory Party”.
In another email the Special Adviser shares a speech by Labour MP Keir Starmer which he says, is “broadly setting out Labour’s position”.
Commenting on the emails, Mark Reckless said: “At a time when the conduct of Labour Special Advisers is very much in the spotlight, this shows that they have been recklessly breaching the Code of Conduct since as far back as May.
“SpAds are there to support the conduct of government and are given dispensation to act in a more political manner than other civil servants, but the code of conduct explicitly forbids them from acting in an overtly party political manner.
“These emails are from a very tight time period and shine a light on the flagrant manner in which Labour advisers disregard this rule.
“This is a clear breach of Special Adviser employment terms and should have been handled by a Labour Party employee – not by a taxpayer funded civil servant.
“I expect the Code of Conduct to be applied and for disciplinary action to be taken.”
Lee Canning of the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “The Welsh Labour Government should be promoting the best use of taxpayer funds, yet it appears that their abuse of the public purse is getting ever worse.
“For a Special Adviser to be using publicly funded facilities for party political activity is as close to personal use as it gets. In the private sector an employee would be disciplined and probably dismissed for such actions.
“It is time for politicians of all parties to understand that the money they spend is taxpayers’ money and not government money.”
The Welsh Government has been asked to comment on the allegations made by Mr Reckless and Mr Canning.
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