MONMOUTH Assembly Member Nick Ramsay says he has offered “clear, constructive and workable proposals” to the leader of the Welsh Conservative group in a bid to halt a court battle between the two next week.
Mr Ramsay took the Assembly’s party leader Paul Davies to court a week last Friday (January 31) in a bid to get his suspension from the group lifted.
Four weeks on and with no end in sight to the stand off, Mr Ramsay launched legal action, with a High Court judge at Bristol Civil Justice Centre ordering Mr Davies to lift the suspension until a trial can take place next week.
Since then, Mr Davies stayed away from a meeting of his party group attended by Mr Ramsay, with Tory AMs told the leader would not be attending until the full court hearing takes place.
Sources have reportedly told the BBC his absence was a result of legal advice.
Last Wednesday (February 5), Mr Ramsay told the Review in a statement: “I have today put clear, constructive and workable proposals to Mr Davies to bring an end to the legal case and allow Mr Davies and I to get back to working together.
“The Conservative Party is a party that upholds the rule of law; it would not have been right for me to have failed to respond when – perhaps inadvertently – my Group Leader broke the law by purporting to suspend me.
“My case that he broke the law was supported by the judge, but I made it clear after the court hearing last week that I wanted to put this behind us and get back to working with my colleagues.
“The details of the settlement proposals are confidential, but I very much hope that Mr Davies will see the sense in accepting them to resolve this unfortunate dispute.
“We need to get back to working to hold the Welsh Government to account on behalf of the people we represent.”
Mr Ramsay was also suspended from the Welsh Conservatives party at the start of January, but they have not confirmed whether that suspension has been lifted as well in the wake of the court order.
In a written statement to the High Court on January 31, the Monmouth AM said he was “at his wits’ end” and was seeking assistance to end the stalemate.
Representing Mr Ramsay, who was first elected in 2007 and chairs the Welsh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, David Lock QC said Mr Davies “lacked the power” to suspend Mr Ramsay in the way he had and had not conformed to the rules of the group’s constitution.
Mr Lock added: “The matter is primarily urgent because the claimant has important responsibilities as an elected member of the Welsh Assembly which are being thwarted by his unlawful suspension from the group.
“He tried to work within the Conservative party to resolve matters in a sensible way but, for the reasons explained in his witness statement, this proved to be impossible.”
Judge Jonathan Russen QC ordered the suspension to be lifted until a trial between February 19 to 21, saying: “In my judgement, it is appropriate that he is restored to the membership of the group.”
Mr Ramsay was arrested around 8pm on January 1 and spent the night in custody in Newport before being released without charge on January 2, the court heard.
The AM hasn’t spoken publically about the circumstances that led to his arrest.
At 1.31pm on January 2, Mr Davies emailed Mr Ramsay to tell him he had “no option” but to suspend him from the Welsh Conservatives group.
Richard Price QC, representing Mr Davies, told the court eight members of the 11-strong Tory Assembly group had supported the suspension and it was not the case that Mr Davies had “acted solo”.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Ramsay said: “I am disappointed that I had to come to court today to achieve this result.
“However, I am grateful for the opportunity to continue serving my constituents and discharging my public functions.”
He also said he was “completely committed” to his colleagues and the wider Conservative party.
Lawyers, Sanders Witherspoon of Essex, acting on behalf of the politician, have said: ”Until the Conservative Party explain why he is suspended (they have not) the matter will be unresolved.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Ramsay has done nothing wrong and did not invite the suspension.
“Mr Ramsay is in limbo but that is not his fault. The quicker the Conservative Party do something and deal with this properly the quicker this will be resolved.
“At the moment they seem to be relying on unsupported conjecture, which is wholly unsatisfactory.”