Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Welsh Labour have a public falling out
The BBC report on a major, public falling out between two senior Labour politicians that may well have greater consequences for the Welsh Government and the wider Welsh Labour Party.
The broadcaster tells us that Gower MP, Tonia Antoniazzi has called on Labour's sport minister to consider resigning over how she handled the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) sexism scandal.
Tonia has accused Dawn Bowden of a "cynical attempt to rewrite history" in a BBC interview where the minister defended her actions by saying that she did not have details of complaints, even though Antoniazzi said she had passed on details of the women affected to the minister:
The WRU apologised earlier this year after a report found sexism and racism was not properly challenged.
It was produced in the wake of a BBC Wales documentary said that a former boss at Welsh women's rugby said she considered suicide because of the organisation's culture.
Ms Antoniazzi, Labour's Gower MP, had raised concerns about issues within the WRU in March of the previous year both in the House of Commons and directly with the deputy minister, Dawn Bowden.
In a strong-worded statement posted to her website, Ms Antoniazzi said she had given contact details of women affected prior to the BBC Wales documentary's broadcast, but claimed Ms Bowden did not contact them.
She asked Ms Bowden to "withdraw her recent remarks about me, to apologise to the women whose outreach she ignored, and to seriously consider her position".
The deputy minister for arts, sport and tourism did not meet WRU bosses to discuss culture issues until after a BBC Wales Investigates documentary highlighting a "toxic culture" of sexism and homophobia was broadcast in January 2023.
The minister, a Member of the Senedd (MS) for Merthyr Tydfil, told the BBC's Politics Wales programme she could not intervene sooner because she needed "details of their complaints" to give her "assurances that what was being said was actually real".
Ms Bowden told Politics Wales that what her Labour colleague said in the House of Commons and the concerns she had raised with her in meetings and in official letters was not enough for her to act.
"What I had said and I made it very clear is that I needed something more than just a kind of sense that there was a problem that couldn't be pinned down," she said.
"What I did offer Tonia was for her to let me have the details of who it was, what the details of their complaints were, that they could provide that to me in confidence.
"I would not be divulging that to anybody but it would give me the assurance that what was being said was actually real.
"That didn't materialise. I never got those. Those individuals subsequently went to the BBC but had they come to me a year earlier, and said to me 'this is me, this is my story, this is what happened', I would have been in a very different situation."
She added she did use her influence as a minister with the WRU, and said "that influence I think has brought us to the place where we are now".
I fully expect to hear more about this row during First Minister's questions today. This could rumble on for some time.
The broadcaster tells us that Gower MP, Tonia Antoniazzi has called on Labour's sport minister to consider resigning over how she handled the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) sexism scandal.
Tonia has accused Dawn Bowden of a "cynical attempt to rewrite history" in a BBC interview where the minister defended her actions by saying that she did not have details of complaints, even though Antoniazzi said she had passed on details of the women affected to the minister:
The WRU apologised earlier this year after a report found sexism and racism was not properly challenged.
It was produced in the wake of a BBC Wales documentary said that a former boss at Welsh women's rugby said she considered suicide because of the organisation's culture.
Ms Antoniazzi, Labour's Gower MP, had raised concerns about issues within the WRU in March of the previous year both in the House of Commons and directly with the deputy minister, Dawn Bowden.
In a strong-worded statement posted to her website, Ms Antoniazzi said she had given contact details of women affected prior to the BBC Wales documentary's broadcast, but claimed Ms Bowden did not contact them.
She asked Ms Bowden to "withdraw her recent remarks about me, to apologise to the women whose outreach she ignored, and to seriously consider her position".
The deputy minister for arts, sport and tourism did not meet WRU bosses to discuss culture issues until after a BBC Wales Investigates documentary highlighting a "toxic culture" of sexism and homophobia was broadcast in January 2023.
The minister, a Member of the Senedd (MS) for Merthyr Tydfil, told the BBC's Politics Wales programme she could not intervene sooner because she needed "details of their complaints" to give her "assurances that what was being said was actually real".
Ms Bowden told Politics Wales that what her Labour colleague said in the House of Commons and the concerns she had raised with her in meetings and in official letters was not enough for her to act.
"What I had said and I made it very clear is that I needed something more than just a kind of sense that there was a problem that couldn't be pinned down," she said.
"What I did offer Tonia was for her to let me have the details of who it was, what the details of their complaints were, that they could provide that to me in confidence.
"I would not be divulging that to anybody but it would give me the assurance that what was being said was actually real.
"That didn't materialise. I never got those. Those individuals subsequently went to the BBC but had they come to me a year earlier, and said to me 'this is me, this is my story, this is what happened', I would have been in a very different situation."
She added she did use her influence as a minister with the WRU, and said "that influence I think has brought us to the place where we are now".
I fully expect to hear more about this row during First Minister's questions today. This could rumble on for some time.
