AM deletes 'we're ready for Leanne' boxing gloves tweet

Credit: Neil McEvoy/Twitter

Assembly member Neil McEvoy has deleted a tweet joking that he and the Culture Minister Dafydd Elis-Thomas wore boxing gloves so that they were "ready" for Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood. Both men used to be members of the Plaid Assembly group before they separately fell out with Ms Wood.

Neil McEvoy responded after Leanne Wood was asked if she most disliked him or Dafydd Elis Thomas Credit: Martin Shipton/Twitter

The Twitter storm began when Martin Shipton of Media Wales said he'd asked the Plaid leader whom she disliked more, Neil McEvoy or Dafydd Elis Thomas. Mr McEvoy responded with a picture of the two men wearing boxing gloves at a photo-call to publicise the Assembly's cross-party boxing group. He insisted that he was simply being humorous.

The independent AM is still a member of Plaid Cymru, despite being expelled from the party's Assembly group. He suggested that one of his critics, the former Plaid Cymru candidate Mike Parker, was being sexist by not seeing the joke.

Neil McEvoy only deleted the tweet after Dafydd Elis Thomas asked him to remove it. Plaid AM Sian Gwenllian had copied the Culture Minister into her response on Twitter.