Anti-Racism Efforts

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 2 November 2021.

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Photo of Sioned Williams Sioned Williams Plaid Cymru 2:17, 2 November 2021

Diolch, Brif Weinidog. Two weeks ago, I co-presented an anti-racism motion here in the Senedd and made the argument that all our institutions, including the police, need to be proactive in their anti-racism efforts. However, it has recently come to light that South Wales Police tried to recruit Lowri Davies, a Swansea University student and Black Lives Matter activist, as an informant, by ominously calling her, completely out of the blue, and driving her around Swansea the next day for 90 minutes, seemingly in order to gain information about BLM and other anti-racist and left-wing groups. She described the approach as like

'grooming to entice me into being an informant'.

The freedom to protest peacefully is a fundamental democratic right, and we owe all of the rights that we enjoy today—economic, social and otherwise—to groups campaigning against racism and for equality, past and present. Does the First Minister therefore agree with me that this type of behaviour from the police is unacceptable in a democracy, and will he write to South Wales Police and the UK Government expressing these concerns? Diolch.