REVELATIONS about a Senedd candidate’s work with a payday loan company were met yesterday by a wall of silence from Wales’s political Establishment.

Plaid Cymru has selected Neil Roberts to contest the Caerdydd Penarth constituency in next year’s Senedd election despite his employment by Loans by MAL, which charges borrowers up to 93.8 per cent APR.

The company is owned by Doug Barrowman, who, along with his wife, Baroness Michelle Mone, is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Around £75 million of assets controlled by the couple have been frozen or restrained under a court order obtained by the Crown Prosecution Service last year.

PPE Medpro, led by Mr Barrowman, is under investigation for government contracts awarded during the Covid-19 pandemic for allegedly supplying faulty personal protective equipment (PPE).

The firm was awarded contracts worth more than £200m to supply PPE to the NHS through a Conservative government “VIP lane.”

A Plaid insider leaked the details about Mr Roberts’s employment to the Welsh online news site Nation.Cymru, saying: “He claims to work in financial services, but in fact he works for a payday loan company.

“This seems to be in conflict with Plaid Cymru’s stated aim of lifting children out of poverty.”

The Morning Star asked Plaid to comment on its selection process and whether it had done due diligence on its candidate.

We also asked whether the party had known about Mr Roberts’s occupation and, if it did, whether now condoned payday loans.

Plaid stated that it would not respond to the questions at this time and Welsh Labour also declined to comment.

The whistleblower told Nation.Cymru: “Plaid Cymru has several times criticised the vetting process of other parties. I would question theirs, based on what I have learnt of Mr Roberts.”

The under-fire candidate is unlikely to be elected to the Senedd, as he has been placed fourth on Plaid’s list in the constituency, where six members will be elected under a proportional voting system.

Ian Johnson, a former head of policy for the party who now sits on Vale of Glamorgan Council, has in the past called on the Welsh government to restrict payday lenders.

Ex-party leader Leanne Wood has also called for laws to stop payday loan companies charging sky-high levels of interest.