Lee Waters MS

Speech in Senedd on May 22nd 2024 Llywydd, a protest of this size should make us pause and reflect. And it has. Though the petition itself is unfortunately full of misunderstandings and misinformation petition itself is unfortunately full of misunderstandings and misinformation , that’s not really the point. Hundreds of thousands of people put their names to it, and it made us sit-up and take notice. Of course we expected push-back, but the intensity of it was greater than we anticipated. Thankfully, things have settled down. And we now know that 97% of the people who signed the petition did so in the first two weeks after the speed limit changed, when the the signs were still going up in some places. But we listened to the protest, and we acted. We launched a review, earlier than planned, into how the speed limit was being implemented. And far from ‘marking our own homework’, the initial report from the review panel initial report from the review panel was pretty blunt. It sa

Speech in Senedd on May 1st 2024 Llywydd, I’ve been struggling to process my feelings about the issues before us today. And this is a speech I would rather have avoided. Immediately on news of the donation coming out I said I thought it was unjustifiable and wrong. That’s a matter of record, and I have not changed my view.    £200,000 is a staggering amount of money, unprecedented in Welsh politics; and over four times larger than the £45,000 spending cap the Labour Party set to ensure a fair contest.   And the fact it came from a waste company with a conviction for damaging the Gwent Levels, at a time some of us were fighting hard to protect this sensitive area, really shocked me - genuinely.   The First Minister has said the donations to his campaign were checked and filed properly with the Electoral Commission and declared to the Senedd. And that there is no case to answer.    But the issue is not whether the paperwork was correct, it’s whether the judgement was correct.