The Welsh Conservatives have some really serious questions to answer.
On November 27 a WalesOnline investigation found that Aberconwy MS Janet Finch-Saunders had by far the highest turnover of staff of any MS in the Senedd (based on job adverts). In that piece a former staff member alleged that they had to ask permission to go to the toilet. Commenting on the piece Janet categorically denied that she is a difficult woman to work for.
However what has raised the most issues for the Tories is their group's response to the initial allegations. A spokesman for the group told WalesOnline at the time: “The comments made by the former employee aren’t recognised.”
And this is where they have got themselves in a mess.
Within hours of this piece being published multiple other former staff of Janet Finch-Saunders got in touch with me to tell their story. The thing that motivated them wasn’t necessarily animosity towards JFS (though many are deeply resentful of how the perceived they were treated while working for her), but rather they were incandescent at the response of the Conservative group and the suggestion that they were unaware there were any such allegations against Ms Finch-Saunders.
“Anyone who told you they didn’t know is lying,” one person told me. Others directly named senior Tories they had informed of their concerns. One woman says she told the then chief whip Paul Davies while “in borderline tears” while one man told me they had emailed chief of staff Paul Smith about it.
I work one or two days a week in the Welsh Parliament and have dozens of conversations every time I am there. People from all parties, including the Tories, have told me they were aware that there were allegations about how JFS treated her staff. This is not to say the allegations are true, but in my opinion, the idea that senior members of the party were unaware and “do not recognise” these allegations is utter balderdash. Multiple people close to, and within the party have told me that new staff working for JFS were referred to as “Janet’s next victim” for example. Again, I have to stress, I am not saying that the allegations are true or false. I can’t say that. All I can say is that, in my opinion, it stretches credulity to suggest that the Conservative group were unaware of said allegations.
When I went back to the Welsh Tories about the allegations that Paul Davies and Paul Smith had been told about the JFS concerns and asked them if they stood by the “not recognised” line their response was this: “We will not be commenting any further as individual staffing arrangements are a matter for the MS as the employer. As the Group is not the employer, any formal complaint needs to follow the process laid out in the Senedd Staff Handbook.”
Hmmm OK. But this begs far more questions. One of the two following statements must be true:
The Conservative group knew about the concerns regarding how one of their MSs was treating their staff and apparently did not act.
The Conservative group did not know about the allegations and has only become aware of them since the WalesOnline investigation was published.
Each one of these is incredibly problematic for the party for different reasons. Let’s take them in turn.
If there is truth that Paul Davies and Paul Smith were aware of Janet’s alleged behaviour then they have possibly sat back while multiple young people, many in their first ever job, were subjected to an allegedly pretty awful time while working for the party. Let’s not forget that Paul Davies was the leader of Welsh Conservatives, a position where he was well placed to try and investigate these allegations.
But in a strange way the party looks even worse if we accept the group’s version of events - that they were unaware and that such allegations “are not recognised”. OK, let’s play this out.
Imagine for a moment you are Andrew RT Davies. You spend your day tilling the land and leading the Welsh Conservative Party. You are going about your duties as leader when you hear that a significant number of former staff members are making serious allegations about the conduct of one of your Senedd Members. If you were genuinely totally unaware that their previous allegations existed, what would be your initial reaction?
You would like to think the reaction would be “oh my gosh that is terrible I should investigate this further to see if there is any merit in it!”
But this doesn’t seem to be the reaction at all. I went directly to Andrew RT Davies as well as chief whip Darren Millar and asked them if they planned to launch an investigation or inquiry, if they were concerned about the allegations and what their message was to people making the allegation.
I received no response at all from the individual members though I got a rather familiar response back from the party's Senedd group. They said: “Individual MSs are responsible for employing and managing their own staff. There is a staff handbook with clear guidance on how formal complaints can be raised. We take the wellbeing of all staff very seriously.”
What the hell is happening? Why, if these allegations are indeed brand new to them, are the Welsh Tories seemingly not bothering to investigate them? The party in Westminster is currently embroiled in a bullying row regarding deputy PM Dominic Raab (allegations he also refutes) and yet when issues emerge in their own backyard the Welsh Tories genuinely don’t seem to have the energy to be a little bit proactive and tackle them.
I am not saying the allegations against Janet Finch-Saunders are true. But what I am saying is that it is beggars belief that the second biggest party in the Welsh Parliament, which has claimed “we take the wellbeing of all staff very seriously” doesn’t seem to care enough about its own staff to find out for themselves and would rather hide behind lines like “individual MSs are responsible for employing and managing their own staff”.
WalesOnline takes seriously allegations such of these regardless of what political party they involve. If you want to tell your story in confidence you can email will.hayward@walesonline.co.uk
Read more:
