Image source, Senedd Cymru
- author, David Dean
- role, BBC Wales News Political Reporter
-
The Welsh Government has pledged to introduce a ban on politicians lying by the 2026 Senate elections.
Justice Secretary Mik Antoniou vowed to legislate on Tuesday to avert an embarrassing defeat for the Government in the Welsh Assembly.
Labor tried to block an attempt by Plaid Cymru to pass its own ban bill but faced defeat at the polls.
Antoniou promised that the legislation would see any Senedd politician or candidate found guilty of knowingly committing fraud disqualified from sitting as a Senedd (MS) member.
BBC Wales was told ministers had reached the agreement with Plaid Cymru party and former Labour minister Lee Waters just hours before the vote was held.
In the end, the government won with 26 votes in favour, 13 against and 13 abstentions.
Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said what was announced was “truly historic”.
Consultations with opposition parties took place throughout the day, with Antoniou taking the unusual step of attending a meeting of the Conservative group on Tuesday morning.
In May, Ms Waters helped former Pride leader introduce changes to election law, currently being considered in the Senate, to introduce a new offence of deception in politics.
This was done despite opposition from the Welsh Government.
Antoniou, the government’s chief legal adviser, criticised insufficient consultation with police.
In a letter to lawmakers, he warned the measure poses “significant risks to stifling political debate and undermining effective oversight of government.”
On Tuesday, the governor moved, through an amendment, to have Price’s criminal charges removed from the bill, which includes provisions such as one that would lay the groundwork for a pilot for automatic voter registration.
But he faced defeat after the entire opposition, including Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Jane Dodds, united in backing his attack.
If the law had passed, it would have given politicians and candidates 14 days to retract false statements.
If prosecuted through the courts, he will be disqualified from MS for four years.
It is not yet clear whether the proposed law would make lying a criminal offense or result in civil penalties.
“The Welsh Government will bring forward legislation by 2026 to disqualify any MP or candidate found to have knowingly committed deception through an independent judicial process,” Mr Antoniou told the Senedd.
He said he would ask the Senate Standards Committee “to make recommendations to that effect.”
He said this is “an issue close to everyone’s heart.”
Price called it a “landmark moment and an acknowledgment that the existing mechanisms for ensuring public trust and confidence in our politics are not working.”
This would make Wales the first country to make it illegal to say political falsehoods, he said.
“Politics in this country is definitely getting darker,” Waters, the Mississippi lawmaker from Llanelli, said during the hour-long debate.
He consistently reflected on a year in which he encountered “lies, manipulation, racist abuse, arson” and “mobs, instigated by visiting far-right elements, storming the homes of people who had their heads sticking out of the parapets.”
He added: “It’s a terrible, depressing experience to watch ugliness being quietly normalised.”
“It is naive to think that democratic traditions are sacred. We cannot allow such a destruction of norms in any way.”
Welsh Conservative MP Peter Fox said during the debate: “It’s really important that we try to rebuild the trust that has been lost in our profession because it’s so important to our democracy that we are trusted and believed.”
“Unfortunately, it has been eroded.”
But he said he was concerned Antoniou’s proposal “may not give Congress the time to move things forward.”
Ms Dodds, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and her party’s only MP, asked: “Why is lying so prevalent in politics?”
“Because we can get away with it. Deception is rampant among politicians, mainly because we’re not facing real consequences.”