Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 30 January 2018.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 1:39, 30 January 2018

I would agree with you, First Minister. I want to create an environment that encourages as many people as possible to engage with the various inquiries that are looking into the events surrounding the Cabinet reshuffle of last November. And certainly it wouldn't be my intention to out anyone, because that would be against the principles of any inquiry or investigation. But it's not unreasonable, for me or any other Members, in light of any one of 101 tweets I could point to—and I'll just use this one tweet that is on social media:

'told by sources that Carl Sargeant Communities Secretary is losing'.

An important thing is that it is not 'lost' but 'losing' his job, and that was before the Cabinet reshuffle happened. Now, that's not unreasonable, and I could point to many others from other journalists and lobbyists who used the same sort of language. So, it is not unreasonable for people who have witnessed what has gone on to pose the question: why was such language being used by people in a professional position and people we know who had access to the Government information machine to put such messages out there? Again, I'd ask you, using the redaction process and making sure people's identities are covered, that this report be made available so that we can consider its findings as we consider many other reports that are made available to this Assembly.