Gareth Beer stayed away from the Senedd on Wednesday in support of a Reform colleague barred from speaking, and his own question on GP surgery closures in Carmarthenshire went unasked.
The Sir Gaerfyrddin MS joined a Reform UK boycott of the chamber after Joe Martin, the MS for Caerdydd Penarth, was told he would not be called to speak until he apologised for remarks about immigration and race.
Beer backed Martin in two Facebook posts on Wednesday. “Disagreement should be met with discussion, not silence,” he wrote in one, and in the other he praised his colleague for “moving the Overton window”.
Labour and Plaid Cymru members criticised the walkout, which came on Armistice Day and saw Reform’s own debate on support for veterans withdrawn.
What Joe Martin said in the Senedd
Martin spoke during Tuesday’s business statement in the Senedd. He asked for “a statement from your Government on the demographic replacement of white British people”.
By 2063, he said, “we will be a minority in our own country”, because of “mass immigration and differing birth rates”.
He told members: “That change has already taken place in London, Birmingham, Leicester, Slough, Luton and Manchester, and I don’t want it to happen here.”
A nation, he went on, was “a family, which is capable of absorbing people of all races if done at a sensible rate, but not if it’s replaced altogether”.
Heledd Fychan, the Plaid Cymru MS for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr and the government’s Trefnydd, asked for a ruling on whether the remarks were within the rules. “I reject division and hate,” she said.
The Llywydd’s ruling: ‘clearly discriminatory’
The ruling came at 6pm that evening from the Llywydd, Huw Irranca-Davies, who called the contribution “unnecessarily provocative and deliberately offensive”.
He said: “Whilst it is always possible to raise legitimate policy matters in relation to immigration in this Siambr, the focus of that contribution on race and ethnicity was clearly discriminatory, offensive, and detracted from the dignity of the Senedd.”
It was “not the first time the Member has pushed the boundaries in his contributions”, the Llywydd added, and he had warned Martin before.
Martin will not be called to speak until the Llywydd has “a clear indication that the Member understands the boundaries of acceptable parliamentary conduct” and he apologises to the chamber.
Reform: ‘Fewer rights than the people who elected me’
Martin said on Wednesday: “My voters sent me to the Senedd to speak on their behalf.” He said he was being blocked from doing so and had “fewer rights than the people who elected me”.
Helen Jenner, the party’s Neath-born leader in Wales and MS for Bangor Conwy Môn, said: “It is now clear that the freedom of speech of one of our Senedd Members is being curtailed, meaning his constituents are being silenced.”
Every Reform MS would be “in their Senedd office working hard for our constituents”, she said, and the group would still vote at the end of the day.
Jenner and the party’s chief whip, Llŷr Powell, are reported to have told a press conference outside the Senedd that Reform would not speak in the chamber until the ruling is reversed.
Laura Anne Jones, Reform’s deputy leader in Wales and MS for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, said: “If political opponents disagree with Joe, they should defeat his arguments with facts, not shut down his microphone.”
The GP closures question Beer was not there to ask
The boycott meant the first question to the Health Minister on Wednesday 11 November was never put. It was Beer’s.
When it was called at 1.30pm, the Llywydd said: “Question 1, Gareth Beer. He is not present.”
Beer had tabled it on 4 November: “What is the Welsh Government doing to prevent the closure of GP practices in Carmarthenshire?” It does not name any surgery.
But it came two days after he urged people in Pontyates to have their say on the future of their surgery.
Under the health board’s plan, Meddygfa’r Sarn would open only from 9am to 3pm on weekdays. Urgent appointments after that would be seen in Kidwelly.
He wrote on Facebook on 2 November: “Rural primary care must be fully protected.” He asked residents to send their views to his Senedd office “so we can hold decision-makers to account”.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care and Plaid Cymru MS for Gwynedd Maldwyn, told the chamber: “May I start by expressing my disappointment that the Members of the main opposition party are not present?”
Questions “had been tabled by them on GP services in Carmarthenshire, on rural health care”, the minister said, and other members had prepared for them.
Plaid Cymru’s three MSs for Sir Gaerfyrddin, Cefin Campbell, Nerys Evans and Adam Price, wrote to the health board about the merger last month.
‘Shameful’ and ‘empty seats’: how the other parties responded
Ken Skates, the Welsh Labour leader and MS for Fflint Wrecsam, said: “I am astonished that Reform have chosen Remembrance Day of all days to pull a political stunt.”
He called the boycott “shameful, unpatriotic and disrespectful to the Armed Forces community”. Reform’s debate on support for the armed forces and veterans had been due that afternoon.
Reform’s members also sat out a debate on a Welsh Conservative call for a Wales-specific Covid inquiry. The motion fell by 38 votes to 41, with eight abstentions, in a division where 87 of the 96 members voted.
Siân Gwenllian, the Plaid Cymru MS for Gwynedd Maldwyn, told the chamber: “I was very disappointed, having walked in here this afternoon, to see empty seats where Reform usually sit.”
How to have your say on Meddygfa’r Sarn before 29 November
Hywel Dda University Health Board’s engagement on the surgery runs until Sunday 29 November. There is a drop-in at Pontyates Welfare Hall on Friday 20 November, from 1.30pm to 6.30pm.
The surgery has about 4,350 patients and has been run directly by the health board since 2017.
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