Adam Price has refused to resign after an utterly damning report into the culture of the party under his leadership.
Last autumn a WalesOnline investigation exposed serious concerns among Plaid staff about how allegations of sexual assault were been handled. Since then, former Plaid MS Nerys Evans was commissioned to write a report into the party's culture and how the leadership handled serious complaints.
That report has now been released and it is utterly damning. It said that Plaid failed to implement a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment, that "evidence from a recent anonymous survey of staff and elected members highlight cases of sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination" and that "these are not isolated cases" . On top of this the report, which made 82 recommendations, said that staff had "seen too many instances of bad behaviour by elected members be tolerated and feel that there is little point in raising concerns". You can read the full details of the report here.
Despite this, Plaid Leader Adam Price has refused to resign. He has apologised and said he wants to fix the issues. WalesOnline had a sit down interview with him about his position.
WalesOnline: Having just read the report we have to ask, why are you not resigning?
Adam Price: Well, I think the first and most important thing for me to say, is sorry. I want to apologise to all of those that have either experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour in the party and I think that's the most important thing. The report doesn't criticize me personally. But I think it is important for me to take personal responsibility and I do, because I'm the leader. I think accountability is an important value and so I have a unique responsibility.
I think the question is this. Under circumstances such as this, what's the right thing to do? I've thought about this a lot, and I discussed it with people whose values I respect and I think that walking away would be abdicating my responsibility. I think my responsibility now is to acknowledge the truth of what's happened but then to commit to working with others to get it right.
So that's my honest assessment, open hearted, I'm just a human being. This has been painful, in so many ways to so many people, the pain of having read it, is nothing, of course, to the pain for people who have been hurt by failure to address these problems. But, you have to ask yourself, honestly, what's the right thing to do? And I come to the conclusion, the right thing to do is to help put it right, rather than abdicating my responsibility, which would be running away from the problem.
I understand, as you say, you weren't named in the report, but it did talk about how the culture that had developed under your leadership had actually got worse over recent years. Previously, you've called on Vaughan Gething to resign after he swore at a member of his own party, and members of your own party have said that the CEO of the WRU should resign, given the toxic culture there. How can you make those calls but not resign? If this was a Tory politician in Westminster, would you not be calling for them to step down?
I've given you my honest answer and I've been very open hearted to you. I don't think there's much I can add. Every day, every one of us has got to answer the question, 'is doing what I am continuing to do, is that the way that I actually make a difference in the world in my life?' We only have one life, and we've all got to ask ourselves that question every day when we go to work, and for now, my judgement is that what I am called to do is to try and put this right.
Culture doesn't develop overnight and it won't change overnight either. Culture doesn't flow from one individual and it won't change from one individual so there is a collective responsibility as well as a unique one which pertains to this particular leader.
This report for the first first time, I think, looks comprehensively at all of these issues and sets sets out a clear, comprehensive path. I asked Nerys Evans if she would consider leading in this work because I knew that we would get a report that was honest and that would lead to a serious acknowledgement of the failings of the past and what we needed to get right. And that's what we have now. There's a moral imperative and I think there's a serious commitment at all levels of the party, we want to get this right.
If you were one of the many members of staff who've witnessed poor behaviour from MSs, if you're one of the staff who felt there was no point coming forward about sexual assaults, and you're one of the staff who felt that this had got worse under your leadership, why should they have any confidence that you're the person who is best placed to put in place these recommendations? Why does it need to be you that does it?
It can't just be me. I mean, for the reasons that I've just explained...
I mean why does it need to be you as leader?
I have an important role and an important responsibility and the contribution which I am committed to making. But this cannot just be about an individual who is going to change the party. It has to be a shift, has to be a shared endeavour. If we're going to embed it within our culture, it has to be shared right across the party. So there's an important role and contribution that I have to make but it has to be shared right across the party.
We were open about what we were going to do to understand the problems when this was first brought to our attention. And we have now set out very openly what we have found. I believe that there will be strong trust in the sincerity of the working group led by Nerys Evans.
The fact that as the report itself acknowledges already there has been important steps forward in terms of the situation that we are now in. Many of the recommendations have already been implemented. We're doing this at pace, the report was presented last week we met on Saturday. We unanimously, without amendment, agree to all the recommendations, we're committed to implementing them within 12 months. We've set up a process in order to hold ourselves accountable to that
I hope that will give the confidence that is necessary to our staff members, to our members and wider society that we are serious. It is painful to acknowledge the failings that have been set out in this report.
Given the scale of what's been said in that report, how were you not aware that this was going on? Did people honestly not raise this with you? There was a really serious issue of culture that the report says was made worse by the lack of action under the current leadership. How did you not know about this?
We have identified problems in the past that we have commissioned work in relation to that. In misogyny, for example, the report by Siân Gwenllian was referred to. What we've failed to do, I think, is look holistically, right across all issues of culture and behaviour in the party. We've looked at them in a siloed way at different times and even when we have done that we have not systematically then delivered on the recommendations that were agreed to and that is a serious failing.
That's why governance is one of the issues that we need to get right, because no matter how good any report is, no matter how widespread the support is for the recommendations, it is only as good in its impact as your ability to deliver on them.
I think a failure to focus sufficiently on these questions is one of the explanations as to why we have not addressed this. I have to take my share of the responsibility for that, as well as it being reflected across the party.
You have presided over a culture where there was no zero tolerance to sexual assault. What would it take for you to have resigned? Because it's a real constant criticism of the Tory government in Westminster, isn't it, that people don't resign. What would it take for you to stand down? Would you have to have been named in the report?
I think that's maybe a rhetorical question. It's not as if I haven't thought about this a lot.
You have considered resigning?
I absolutely considered what the right thing to do was. These issues are about as important as they get. It's important to us as a nation, that this party, which is so important, I think to the future of our nation, gets this right. So I have thought about this as deeply as I've thought about anything, and the conclusion that I come to is that the right thing for me to do would be to acknowledge, the failure, accept my share of the responsibility in the unique role that I have, and then commit to contributing to getting it right.
You can't see into another man's soul but it's a sincere desire to do the right thing. It's not for craven or selfish reasons it's because I think that's the right thing to do.
Do you think you have the support within your own Senedd members, following the publication of this report?
I wouldn't want to presume to speak on behalf of others, We're a very democratic party and I serve the party at the behest of the party, on behalf of the members and so long as the members want me to serve, and I believe that I have something to contribute, then I'm happy to do that.
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