Plaid’s Muslim “Welsh” Assembly Member Joins Tories — So He Can Give Taxpayer-funded Job to Daughter
The fake Welsh Plaid Cymru party has been shaken by the defection of its only Muslim Welsh Assembly member to the Tories — because Plaid refused permission to give his daughter a job at the taxpayers’ expense.
The Tories have no such compunction or morals about such blatant nepotism and gladly welcomed Pakistani-born Mohammad Ashgar into their party, further confirming their commitment to the Islamification of Britain.
Mr Ashgar has a chequered political past. Previously he was a member of the Conservative Party before switching to the Labour Party. He then joined Plaid.
When Mr Ashgar joined Plaid, that party was ecstatic. The previous leader of Plaid Cymru, Dafydd Thomas, famously remarked in March 2006 that he was “ashamed to see a sea of white faces” in the Welsh Assembly.
However, it seems that Mr Ashgar has decided after all that he is not really a Welsh nationalist (funny, we could have told him that at the beginning) and now sits behind Welsh Conservative Party group leader Tory Nick Bourne.
His daughter, Natasha, who was a candidate for Plaid in the European elections last June, has also defected to the Tories.
The facts of the Ashgar family’s defection from Plaid are a little more self-serving than first meets the eye.
In July 2009, following on from the MPs’ expenses scandal, the Independent Review Panel on AMs’ Pay and Allowances made a series of recommendations aimed at tightening up on expense claims.
The panel’s report said that while family members of AMs who were already employed should be allowed to keep their jobs, no further such appointments should be allowed.
Following that report, Assembly rules will be changed in 2011 so that a Human Resources Officer will be present whenever an AM appoints staff.
In the meantime, however, AMs remain free to employ their relatives, with their salaries being paid out of public funds.
Plaid Cymru decided to impose the review panel’s recommendations on its own AMs with immediate effect and not wait for 2011, when the next Assembly elections are due.
Mr Ashgar already employs his wife and wanted to employ his daughter as well. In September he sought clarification from the Fees Office about whether he could employ his daughter as his press officer. He was told that “according to the rules at present,” he could.
The leader of Plaid, Ieuan Wyn Jones, reminded him of the party’s decision that no more family members should be taken on and that employing his daughter Natasha was unacceptable to the party.
When Mr Ashgar was asked by a newspaper if he had discussed the matter with Mr Bourne, his reply was, “Yes, they know all about it; I know the Conservative Party and their priority is to make every family in the United Kingdom prosperous and happy.”
A Plaid Cymru spokesman is quoted as saying: “It is now clear from Mohammad Ashgar’s comments that his reasons for leaving Plaid Cymru were wholly self-serving; he wanted to employ his daughter; he was stopped from doing so as a Plaid Cymru AM, and therefore he jumped to a different party.”
Presumably, one that will allow him to do just that.
How big a boost Mohammad’s defection is going to be for the Tories at the Assembly is another matter. That party’s AMs were among the most critical of Mr Ashgar, an AM seen as so ineffective as to be widely rumoured to be facing de-selection for the 2011 Assembly election.
* Details for this story kindly supplied by Clive Bennett.
