'Tories happy children killed' - 20mph row tweet

Mick Antoniw agreed that the post was offensive and inappropriate

A senior Welsh government politician is set to be reprimanded for tweeting “Tories so happy to see people and particularly children killed and injured on our roads".

The Senedd's standards watchdog says Counsel General Mick Antoniw should be censured by the Welsh Parliament for his comments, made during an angry online row with the Conservatives over the introduction of Wales' default 20mph speed limit.

But the cross-party standards committee stopped short of recommending a temporary ban, without pay, from the Cardiff Bay institution.

Mr Antoniw, the Labour government's top legal advisor, has admitted his comments were offensive and inappropriate and he deleted them soon after posting them.

On 16 September last year Mr Antoniw posted on his X account: “Tories so happy to see people and particularly children killed and injured on our roads. Wholly irresponsible but not surprising.”

He was responding to a post by the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, Andrew R T Davies, which included a picture of a newspaper front page calling the 20mph default speed limit on most restricted roads “insane".

Mr Davies' Tory colleague, Natasha Asghar MS, complained to the Standards of Conduct Committee that the tweet was "wholly inappropriate,… deeply offensive and completely unnecessary" and in breach of Senedd members' Code of Conduct.

In his report, Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain says that "offensive comments of that kind about a large section of the electorate are not only offensive but could bring the Senedd into disrepute".

"In making them the member, who is a senior politician, set a very poor example, and demonstrated a lack of judgement and leadership...”

The standards committee "agreed with the commissioner’s characterisation of the comments and their ramifications".

Mr Antoniw told the commissioner that by using the term "happy'" he "intended to mean the Welsh Conservatives generically (it was not directed at any individual) were content to oppose a policy which had the objective of saving lives".

"I did not use ‘happy’ in the sense that anyone would be personally take pleasure from seeing children injured or killed on our roads," he said.

During First Minister's Questions, the week after the tweet was posted, Andrew RT Davies asked the then first minister Mark Drakeford whether he agreed it was "unacceptable language to use when trying to engage in a policy position that we have a disagreement over".

Mr Drakeford replied "the counsel general took the tweet down immediately and has since acknowledged that he would not have expressed it in that way had he been in a position to give it further consideration".

Natasha Asghar said the tweet was "deeply offensive"

The standards committee said it "considers a breach of the Code of Conduct by any Member of the Senedd to be a serious matter. The reputation of the Senedd as an institution, and the public’s trust and confidence in it, rely upon members demonstrating integrity and leadership through their actions".

It told Senedd members to "make every effort to ensure that they continue to embody the leadership principles whilst using social media".

The Member of the Senedd for Pontypridd's censure will be put to the Welsh Parliament next Wednesday - a motion that is unlikely to be opposed.

A censure is a formal reprimand which registers the Senedd's disapproval of a member's behaviour, but does not result in further action.

Several Senedd members have banned for short periods of time over their conduct, including Rhys ab Owen who was found to have inappropriately touched and swore at two women while drunk on a night out; Rhianon Passmore after failing to give a breath test, and Michelle Brown for a racial slur.