AN ATTEMPT to force the Welsh Government to release a report into allegations the sacking of former minister Carl Sargeant was leaked has been defeated.

The Welsh Government has repeatedly refused to release the full report released in January, which found “no evidence of prior unauthorised sharing of information” of the sacking of Mr Sargeant – who died four days after he lost his cabinet job in November.

Although the Welsh Conservatives presented a motion in the Assembly today demanding the release of the report under section 37 of the Government of Wales Act 2006, which gives the Assembly the power to demand the release of any document “concerning any matter relevant to the exercise by Welsh ministers of any of their functions”, this was defeated by 29 votes to 26, with one abstention.

The debate went ahead despite the Welsh Government taking the unprecedented step on Tuesday of threatening the Welsh Assembly with legal action if it proceeded.

Speaking at the start of the debate, presiding officer Elin Jones said: “I want to make my position clear about its legitimacy.

“First, the motion is in order.

“Second, the power in section 37 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 is undoubtedly broad, and that is why it can only be applied as a result of a vote in this National Assembly.

“I expect members to continue to approach the use of section 37 proportionately and reasonably.”

Presenting the motion, leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies said he believed Tuesday’s release of an investigation into allegations of bullying within the Welsh Government cabinet – which cleared the first minister of having misled the Assembly – showed such a report can be released without compromising the identities of witnesses.

And he called on Labour AMs to vote with their consciences, saying: “I hope individual members will vote on the strength of the argument that is before them.

“If the whip delivers that vote, it won't deliver what is morally right here, and that is the ability to have this report sitting alongside the other reports that have been commissioned so that we can satisfy ourselves that each and every avenue of investigation has been exhausted to make sure we get to the bottom of the argument, the discussion and the debate, and ultimately make some sense of the tragedy that led to the death of a member of this institution.”

Plaid Cymru AM Adam Price said the motion had larger implications than the release of the report.

“The arguments, I think, in favour of publication are more fundamental,” he said.

“They're about the principles of open government, they're about parliamentary accountability, and they touch upon the dark chapter, I think, in Welsh politics that we currently find ourselves going through.”

He added the Welsh Government’s legal threat made publication of the report more important.

“It would be unthinkable at Westminster for the law officers of the British Government to march up to the speaker's office, as the counsel general did to our presiding officer, to issue threat of legal proceedings.

“For that reason alone, I would argue we must pass this motion as a symbol of our defiant refusal to be bullied into submission by an overweening executive.”

Ukip Wales leader Neil Hamilton said the threat of legal action “seems to be most extraordinary elevation of the first minister into a kind of absolute monarch”. And Independent South Wales Central AM Neil McEvoy said: “I hope on this matter we can, as an Assembly, vote so that the public can see the outcome of the inquiry.

“It's the Welsh people we need to protect and it's the integrity of this institution.”

Responding to the debate, counsel general Jeremy Miles said: “Today's motion is not, in the Welsh Government's view, an appropriate mechanism for the resolution of this issue.”

Whether or not the Welsh Government will take legal action against the Assembly for continuing with the debate is unclear.