Tory Welsh Assembly Member Darren Millar has revealed it was Carl Sargeant himself who asked for questions to be tabled about bullying in the Welsh Government back in 2014. Sargeant was a Cabinet member at the time and asked the Tory AM to help him tackle bullying coming from the First Minister’s office. Darren Millar didn’t name the ex-adviser responsible. Guido can reveal he was referring to Carwyn Jones’ former top special adviser Jo Kiernan, now at Welsh spin merchants Deryn.

There are allegations that Deryn put pressure on Sargeant before his death. It is said the firm had been participating in a whispering campaign against him for months because he would not give lobbyists access in Cardiff. Cathy Owens, head of Deryn and herself a former special adviser who was embroiled in an earlier bullying scandal, took to the BBC in the days before Carl’s death to allege sexual harassment from an unnamed politician. She pointedly did not rule out Sargeant from her unsupported allegations as part of a concerted campaign to try and humiliate and discredit him.

Deryn – which is never far from a Welsh government lobbying scandal – has something of a reputation as a Welsh Bell Pottinger. It is losing scandal-averse clients. Deryn has just been dropped by the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon developers…

See also: The Persistent Personal Undermining of Carl Sargeant – Leighton Andrews