EX-PLAID AM'S DAUGHTER NOW ON HIS STAFF

Daughter of Assembly Member Mohammed Ashgar, who defected from Plaid Cymru to the Conservatives before Christmas last year, because he wasn't allowed to employ his daughter, has her now officially on his staff.

Natasha Ashgar's name has appeared on the official list of AM support staff.

Ashgar the only ethnic minority AM, said that he left Plaid, because of their refusal to employ her daughter was 'the last straw'. Even

after her selection by an independent panel and offering to work for free, Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones refused to her as his assistant.

Plaid made this decision after the last AMs’ expenses, and put forth that no new family members should be taken on it's AM members.

Mr Asghar told the Western Mail: “Natasha is working for me as a volunteer – she is not being paid. She’s not giving up her bank job in London, and will be working for me on her days off, during holidays and at weekends.”