Nick Ramsay

S025

In 2008 Ramsay spent much of his time on the Special Assembly Procedure Committee, and in particular the "S025," which re-considered the controversial Robeston Wathen by-pass proposed by the Welsh Assembly Government. These types of Orders and challenges are rare occurrences. The last one which was heard in Parliament was in 1999.

Controversy

In 2011, while a contender for the leadership of the Welsh Conservatives Ramsay had to apologise after being barred from a pub following a charity pub quiz in aid of Help for Heroes. The landlord is quoted as saying that he resigned his membership of the party over the issue as "Nick Ramsay heckled the quizmaster repeatedly, telling him that his questions were rubbish. He challenged the quizmaster, a local antiques dealer, to bid £100 for a rugby jersey in an auction we held on the same evening for the charity. He was quite rude and objectionable and his comments didn't go down well - I think he'd had a few beers." ^[1]

In 2012, Ramsay was criticised for missing a committee session; after an evening's drinking in Cardiff at a leaving party for a Labour member of staff at a Cardiff Bay pub before heading into town at closing time for a late city centre bar. He failed to notify the clerk that he was ill until two hours after the meeting was due to start. when an email was received by the clerk from a member of Mr Ramsay’s staff to say he had been taken ill during the night. Ramsay was not in the Assembly chamber for the majority of the afternoon’s session, but arrived at 5.25pm to vote on a Liberal Democrat motion of no confidence in Health Minister Lesley Griffiths. ^[2]

In 2014, Ramsay was accused of having been drunk during a debate in the Assembly. The Assembly’s Presiding Officer had to launch an investigation after she received a complaint alleging that a Tory AM appeared “drunk” and made “slurred, incoherent and insolent” contributions to a debate on mental health in the Senedd, but he denies being drunk. ^[3] Ramsay, who also celebrated his birthday that day, had intervened twice during a speech by health minister Prof Mark Drakeford AM, who at one point told him he would pursue the matters raised directly with him outside the confines of the debate. ^[4] An online clip demonstrated the awkwardness of the debate. ^[5]

Presiding Officer, Dame Rosemary Butler, did not support the claim and no further action was taken.^[6]