A Welsh Government minister has apologised and said he was "embarrassed" after he accidently voted against the Government three times. Deputy minister for climate change and Llanelli Senedd Member Lee Waters said it was "embarrassing and frustrating" that he "made mistakes" when voting and blamed a "lapse in concentration".
The first error came during a vote on the Agricultural Bill on May 16. The Tories had introduced an amendment. Labour, who have a working majority, voted against it. However Mr Waters accidently voted in favour of it meaning that it passed.
This led to the need for a special "report stage" to undo the effect of the amendment on the bill. There was a vote the following week (May 24) to allow a report stage and Mr Waters was the only MS to vote against it, meaning he failed to vote to undo his earlier error.
Then the next week of business on June 6 he voted against the Wesh Government and with the Tories in favour of giving the Welsh Parliament's consent to the UK Government on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill which his government vehemently opposed.
How do MSs vote in the Senedd?
When Members of the Senedd vote, they do so by opening the voting app on their computer. The vote being taken appears on the screen when the Llywydd calls the vote and they click on one of three buttons on their screen – For (green), Abstain (yellow) and Against (red).
They are then asked to confirm that they are voting a particular way and to click OK. So it’s a two-stage process. To be fair to Mr Waters, he is not the first MS to make this mistake despite the two steps.
Speaking to WalesOnline, Mr Waters said he had apologised for his errors. He said: "It is embarrassing and frustrating to have made mistakes when voting but there’s no excuse for the lapses in concentration. I have apologised to the Chief Whip.”
