7. Welsh Conservatives debate: Ministerial reshuffle: the Permanent Secretary's report

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:36 pm on 28 February 2018.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 4:36, 28 February 2018

Yes, I agree, and that reflects the comments I made earlier about needing to know how questions were asked, what questions were asked and how conclusions were reached.

Key questions still remain unanswered about the circumstances surrounding the reshuffle. I've seen texts this week, which I understand will be made available to the QC-led inquiry into events leading up to Carl Sargeant's death, showing he believed he knew that reshuffle was coming. Those messages between Carl and a friend correctly predicted the reshuffle would happen. But how had speculation reached that point?

I worked for nearly two decades as a political journalist. I've got a pretty good idea how a flake of speculation can grow into a large snowball. But how was one Cabinet Secretary in this case seemingly and so firmly identified as one whose time in Government was to come to an end? We are some way short of finding answers to such questions, and a vote today to publish the Permanent Secretary's reports could, perhaps, go some of the way to giving us those answers.