Senedd member Hefin David reprimanded over 'vulgar tweet'

Hefin David apologised and deleted the post

A Labour Senedd member has been reprimanded for a tweet, prompting a reminder to politicians to behave on social media.

Hefin David was found by a watchdog to have breached the code of conduct when he tweeted a "vulgar and grossly offensive personal attack".

The Caerphilly Labour MS was officially censored in a unanimous decision of the Senedd on Wednesday.

Mr David had apologised and deleted the post early the next day it was sent.

A party colleague told the Senedd politicians should treat social media in the same way they would approach meeting people.

John Griffiths, acting as temporary chairman of the Welsh Parliament's standards of conduct committee, said Senedd members should treat "interactions on social media in accordance with the same principles that would be applied to face to face interaction".

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The decision in the Welsh Parliament follows findings by the Standards Commissioner, Douglas Bain, and the standards committee.

The censure is an official reprimand but is not as serious as other punishments available, such as a temporary ban from the parliament.

In his report Mr Bain said 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 said 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".

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".