Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 9 November 2021.
Diolch, Llywydd. May I, first of all, also, on behalf of Plaid Cymru extend our deepest condolences to the family of Jack Lis? One can only begin to comprehend the grief that that family must be experiencing, and our thoughts and prayers are with them, with Jack's friends, with the community and with the staff of the school, who I know are also terribly affected by this awful tragedy.
First Minister, in the last week, a majority of Members of Parliament in the House of Commons voted to overturn the verdict of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to protect a former Minister. Another former Minister, Lord Bethell, admitted to deleting WhatsApp messages in which he discussed the granting of COVID contracts, and the Conservative Government now stands accused of handing out not just contracts but seats in the House of Lords in return for political donations. We have seen accusations of political sleaze in the past, but given the scale and the scope of the current wave of cronyism, contracts running into hundreds of millions of pounds, and the blatant attempt to undermine the independent watchdogs that are the hallmarks of a functioning democracy, is Westminster as a political system, as even a former Conservative Prime Minister has argued, now plainly and simply corrupt?