NEWPORT AM SAYS PLAID JOB BAN WAS ‘THE LAST STRAW’

Mohammad Asghar, the Assembly member for South East Wales who sensationally quit Plaid for the conservatives last week, has told Newport City Radio that Plaid's refusal to let him employ his daughter was the ‘last straw’.

In an interview broadcast last night on the weekly news show ‘SPIN’, the only ethnic minority AM in the assembly voiced his discontent with Plaid over a u-turn in the decision to let him give his daughter a job as an assistant.

He said his daughter Natasha was selected by an independent panel and had also offered to work for free, but Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones refused to let him employ his daughter.

Mr Asghar says there were numerous occasions where he felt Plaid's actions as a party were significantly different to his own views.

When asked about whether he would be looking to employ his daughter in the future under the conservative's, Mr Asghar said "If she's good enough... she can contribute to the community and the party at the same time".

Natasha has also worked for Plaid in the past, standing for the Blaenau Gwent region party in the 2007 assembly election.

After the announcement on Tuesday the former Plaid AM known as ‘Oscar’ said he felt ‘out of tune’ with plaids policies on a number of issues, but chose not to dwell on the employment of his daughter until now.

The switch of allegiance is significant because the seat held by Mr Asghar is ‘closed’, a seat where votes are cast for political parties rather than individuals. There is no legal requirement at the moment in the assembly that an AM must stand down under these unusual and perhaps unprecedented circumstances. An independent panel chaired by Sir Roger Jones some months ago recommended that AMs should not recruit members of their own families to work for them in future.

Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne said the newest member of his party was a man who ‘commands respect within the assembly and the communities of South East Wales’.

Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones was shocked at the sudden nature of the announcement and that the party regretted his decision to be the only AM ever to cross the floor of the assembly since its creation in 1999.

Mr Ashgar was elected as the Plaid candidate for South Wales East in 2007.

Hear the piece in full here.

UPDATE: Featured on Betsan's Blog, and in the Western Mail