Labour Senedd member reprimanded for 'vulgar' tweet

Hefin David apologised and deleted the post

A Labour MS breached the Senedd's code of conduct by tweeting a "vulgar and grossly offensive personal attack", the standards commissioner has concluded.

It follows an investigation by Douglas Bain into a tweet by Caerphilly Senedd member Hefin David in March.

In his report, Mr Bain noted the MS had apologised and deleted the post early the next day.

Senedd members are expected to vote to formally reprimand Mr David in the Welsh Parliament next week.

He admitted to the commissioner that the tweet was inappropriate.

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The committee decided not to include the contents of the tweet in its report "as we consider it may cause further distress to the subject and their family to do so, particularly as they were not the complainant".

In his report to the standards committee, Mr Bain says Senedd members "are rightly required to show leadership and to be exemplars of good behaviour".

He said "abusive use of social media reflects badly on him but also tends to bring the Senedd into disrepute" and concluded that Mr David's conduct "fell very far below the required standards".

Mr Bain says the MS has told him he has taken steps to prevent "any further misuse of social media" and that he had urged him to "take care in his use of that medium".

Mr David declined to comment.

He was previously found in breach of the code of conduct for calling someone a "coc oen" (Welsh for "lamb's cock") on Twitter in 2019, although he was not formally punished.