Minister Lee Waters calls female opponent's remarks hysterical

Lee Waters said Natasha Asghar "comes up with hysterical labels to throw at me"

A minister has been told off for accusing a female politician of making "hysterical" comments in the Senedd.

Lee Waters said Tory Member of the Senedd Natasha Asghar had thrown "hysterical labels" at him, after she said he was "punishing drivers".

Presiding Officer Elin Jones said there was a long history of the term "being used by men to demean women".

She said it was an "inappropriate word" to use to describe any contribution by any woman in the Senedd.

Ms Jones said the deputy transport minister may have used the term "naively" but "I don't expect to hear it again".

Ms Asghar, MS South Wales East, had criticised Mr Waters for confirming in a television interview that motorists should expect to see road charges introduced in the future.

She said: "People across the country are struggling to make ends meet with the rising cost-of-living pressures, whilst at the same time you are drawing up plans to squeeze even more cash out of them.

"Deputy minister, will you finally stop punishing drivers at every available opportunity and go back to the drawing board and re-think your 50 mph and road charge plans?"

Natasha Asghar speaks for the Welsh Conservatives on transport matters

Responding, Mr Waters said: "By definition, the [UK] Treasury's reliance on fuel duty to fund large parts of public services will have to be reassessed because people won't be buying petrol.

"So, some of form of road user charging is inevitable, and is, in fact, being actively worked on by her [Conservative] government in London.

"So, whenever she comes up with hysterical labels to throw at me, she really needs to think beyond the soundbite to what she's saying, because this is something all governments are doing, because, simply, the rules are changing."

The Welsh government is not commenting on the matter.