Political Defections

Part of 3. Questions to the Assembly Commission – in the Senedd at 3:08 pm on 6 March 2019.

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Photo of David Lloyd David Lloyd Plaid Cymru 3:08, 6 March 2019

(Translated)

Thank you very much for that response. Now, naturally, recently, in responding to the fact that Labour MPs had left that party in London and their parliamentary group, the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and I quote, said that

'If you are elected as a representative of a particular party and you decided that you do not want to do that in the future, you should go back to the people that put you there and let them have that choice again'.

Those are the words of Mark Drakeford. Now, I agree entirely with that view, and because we have seen similar moves here in this Senedd, what assessment will the Commission make of the possibility of developing legislation that would require a Member that leaves a political party to face a by-election? Or are we only to rely on the precedent of what’s happened in the past, and therefore are we to deprive people of a representative of the party that they voted for in the first place?