Plaid Cymru: Probe finds bullying and misogyny culture in party

Plaid Cymru needs to "detoxify a culture of harassment, bullying and misogyny", according to a damning review of the party.

It says "too many instances of bad behaviour" were tolerated.

Plaid leader Adam Price told BBC Wales he would not resign and would be "abdicating" his responsibility if he quit.

He admitted the highly critical report had "harmed and tarnished" the party.

The review said an anonymous survey of staff and elected members highlighted examples "of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination".

It said they were not "isolated cases".

Mr Price apologised to all those who experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour and said Plaid Cymru was a product of the society it was trying to change.

He said all 82 recommendations in the report had been accepted.

The report follows a difficult six months for Mr Price's party.

It emerged last November that an allegation of sexual assault had been made against a senior member of staff of Plaid Cymru.

That was separate to a serious allegation about the conduct of a Member of the Senedd, Rhys ab Owen, currently being investigated by Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain.

Mr ab Owen is suspended from the Plaid Cymru group in the Senedd, but not the party.

A working group, led by former Plaid politician Nerys Evans, started looking at complaints about the party's internal culture last December.

The Prosiect Pawb (Everyone's Project) report said "inaction over many years, from those with positions of power to challenge bad behaviour has made a bad situation even worse".

Most discrimination was gender based, it says.

The report says Plaid Cymru's governing national executive council "must be confident actions taken in the light of Prosiect Pawb's findings and recommendations will be effective in enabling permanent, non-reversible measures to detoxify a culture of harassment, bullying and misogyny and to make Plaid truly and visibly welcoming to women".

HR issues need to be addressed "urgently", it says, adding: "Staff have reported bullying and discrimination in the workplace. We need to better understand the extent and scale of these issues.

"Many staff do not feel that there are safe systems to raise concerns, seek support or challenge what they see.

"They've seen too many instances of bad behaviour by elected members be tolerated and feel that there is little point in raising concerns."

It goes on to say that "a lack of collective leadership and governance across the party which has meant that these issues have worsened over the last few years".

Asked if he would resign, Mr Price said: "The assessment I've come to my responsibility now is to lean into this work and work with others across the party to get this right.

"By walking away, I wouldn't be contributing to that. I would be abdicating my responsibility."

He said he wanted "to apologise to all those who have either experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour within the party".

Mr Price admitted the party had a "culture which has allowed behaviour to go unchallenged when it should have been".

Mr Price said the report was "very painful and sobering to read" but "even more painful for those who had to experience it".

He said the report's findings "would certainly have harmed and tarnished the reputation of the party, and the trust and the credibility of the party".

But he said Plaid Cymru is a "product of the society that it is trying to change".

"We are transitioning as a society.

"Things that were deemed acceptable, [which] should never have been acceptable actually in the past, we are realising like never before we should not accept that behaviour."

Reading the 82 recommendations in this report, you can't escape the conclusion that Plaid Cymru has a lot of work to do before it can truly say this crisis is over.

Adam Price says he spoke to people in the party before deciding not to resign and oversee that work himself.

The recommendations cover all manner of things, including HR policies, antisemitism and safeguarding.

That's a bad look for any party, particularly one that espouses a vision of a more tolerant, equal society.