Welsh election: Former Abolish member Gareth Bennett would have been 'distracting', leader says

It would have been "distracting" for the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party had its first Senedd member continued to stand as a candidate in May's election, according to its leader.

Gareth Bennett left the party at the start of the campaign and will run instead as an independent.

Abolish leader Richard Suchorzewski said Mr Bennett had been "harangued" by the media after he "made some mistakes".

Mr Bennett declined to comment.

He was elected as UKIP's representative in South Wales Central in May 2016, after surviving calls within the party for him to be deselected because of comments he made about Eastern European immigrants.

In 2018, he was elected to lead the party in Wales, standing on a campaign to scrap devolution.

His leadership of the party's Senedd group lasted less than a year, after other members left to join the Brexit Party.

After a spell as an independent Mr Bennett joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party in June 2020.

SIGN UP FOR WALES ALERTS: Get extra updates on BBC election coverage

In 2019, a Senedd watchdog found a video made by the politician was demeaning of Labour's Joyce Watson, which led to him being banned from the institution for a week.

The year before, a separate investigation found Mr Bennett spent almost £10,000 on a damp office without a survey and against advice from a solicitor.

Asked by the BBC's Politics Wales why Mr Bennett stood down as an Abolish candidate a month before the Senedd election, Mr Suchorzewski said: "Gareth, when he was a member of UKIP, made some mistakes.

"And when he joined our party the media just harangued him, and everything was based on those mistakes that Gareth had made there.

"Now, quite frankly, we've had a discussion with Gareth, and we ultimately agreed that it would be better, because it would be distracting from our core message, if he did not stand for us at this election."

Mr Suchorzewski and another of Abolish's senior officials, Simon Rees, were employed as Senedd researchers for Mr Bennett.

WALES ELECTION: THE BASICS

What's happening? On 6 May, people will vote to elect 60 Members of the Senedd (MSs). The party that can command the support of a majority of MSs will form the Welsh government. Find out more here.

What powers does the Senedd have? MSs pass laws on aspects of life in Wales such as health, education and transport - and have some tax powers.

He said he was "employed for four months... that's the only public taxpayers' money I've ever received in 40-odd years of working".

"And part of the reason of that was to help and educate Gareth, and to look at the policies, and coming up with the various initiatives that we were advocating to make sure that we were in alignment.

"After four months, I was no longer necessary to be part of that process," he said.

In its policy statement for the election, Abolish said it had one policy: to scrap the Senedd and "end devolved government in Wales".

Asked what the party had to offer as Wales rebuilds after the pandemic, beyond an overall policy to end devolution, Mr Suchorzewski said: "That solution is integral.

"If we get enough seats, and I appreciate that rolling back devolution is a process rather than an event, quite frankly. But if we get enough seats, we can make a difference.

"We can stop further devolution which we believe has been destructive for the people of Wales," he added.

Politics Wales is on BBC One Wales at 10:15 BST on Sunday 25 April or on the BBC iPlayer