Questions over Kirsty Williams' cabinet job after Article 50 vote

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has questioned how First Minister Carwyn Jones can keep Kirsty Williams as education secretary after she voted against triggering Brexit.

The Liberal Democrat AM voted with Plaid Cymru against Article 50 despite the Labour group opposing the motion.

Mr Davies suggested some Labour AMs were "sore" over the Senedd vote.

Mr Jones's spokesman said it was recognised the Lib Dems were in a different position on the matter.

Article 50 of the European Union Lisbon treaty is the trigger that would allow UK ministers to start the process to leave the EU.

The UK government wants to set Article 50 in motion by the end of March.

Mr Davies himself campaigned for Vote Leave at the referendum last year - his group joined Labour and UKIP in voting against the Plaid Cymru proposal in the Senedd on Tuesday.

Only 10 AMs supported the motion to oppose Article 50 being triggered without assurances over the single market, versus 46 against.

The vote if passed would have been advisory and would not have affected the process.

Andrew RT Davies asked whether Mr Jones was going to sack Kirsty Williams after the vote

Mr Davies questioned whether collective responsibility - the principle that ministers should always support the government - had been lifted in the Labour-led Welsh Government for the Lib Dem minister.

He told BBC Wales he had no issue with how Ms Williams voted, but questioned how he "could have her continuing in his cabinet".

"I want to know from the first minister, is he going to allow that to stand, or is he going to sack Kirsty Williams?"

"I think the question needs to be asked, was collective responsibility the order of the day yesterday, or had he lifted that," he said.

"In which case, if he lifted it for Kirsty Williams, I know of several Labour backbenchers who would have voted differently if they didn't have the whip imposed on them.

"It seems one rule for Labour backbenchers, another rule for Kirsty Williams".

Mr Davies, who said he spoke to three Labour backbenchers, said they had "expressed soreness to me because obviously they had an emergency group meeting last Wednesday where this was discussed".

"They were led to believe it was the government position and lo and behold after the vote they found that a member of that government, a Lib Dem admittedly, voted against the will of the government," he said.

Mr Davies said it showed Mr Jones was a "very weak first minister", and added that if a member of the government was allowed to vote in a different way to Labour backbenchers "that shows a causal, at best, disregard for the role of government and collective responsibility and that really poses questions on some of the big issues like the M4 relief road".

'Specific matter'

Because of a Supreme Court judgement the power to start the Article 50 process has to be given to UK ministers through legislation passed by MPs - legislation that is currently progressing through Parliament.

A vote last week on the bill saw seven Welsh Labour members of parliament rebelling against the Labour whip, which obliged the party to support the proposal.

No such rebellion took place in the Senedd.

A spokesman for Mr Jones said: "We recognise that the Liberal Democrats are in a different position on this specific matter."

He added: "Our priority is to secure maximum support for our white paper, Securing Wales' Future, and that is what we have achieved."

A Labour group spokesman declined to comment on Mr Davies's comments about the views of backbenchers.

The Scottish Parliament voted against Article 50 in a vote on the same day.