Former Senedd member Nick Ramsay has been cleared with three other politicians of breaking lockdown rules by drinking wine at a Welsh Assembly tearoom.

The former MS was the Conservative member for Monmouth when he and the others were reported for allegedly breaching the Welsh Government’s ban on buying drink in pubs and restaurants in December 2020.

Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain accepted that Mr Ramsay, then Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Paul Davies, fellow Tory Darren Millar and Labour Blaenau Gwent member Alub Davies were unaware that the rules meant it could have been illegal for them to have been served alcohol while eating pre-ordered meals there.

Mr Bain said that “having considered all the circumstances in context”, he could not be satisfied any of them contravened the integrity of the code of conduct or any other “relevant provision”.

He also slammed The Sun newspaper for claiming the politicians were “loud and raucous… without any factual foundation”, with security staff “clear that nothing of the kind alleged took place”.

Shared Regulatory Services, Cardiff’s licensing authority, previously cautioned the caterer involved, Charlton House, for “supply of alcohol in contravention of the rules at that time”.

Mr Bain said that while the alcohol ban may have made it unlawful for the Senedd caterer to sell or supply alcohol in the tearoom, it was not unlawful to drink alcohol there.

The findings were backed by the Senedd’s standards committee, which said that all four were aware of the alcohol ban, but “believed this would not apply to the members’ tearoom because they considered the tearoom to be akin to a workplace canteen”.

All four apologised “for the impression the incident gave and recognised that their actions may have been perceived as not within the spirit of the regulations”.

Mr Ramsay was deselected as the Tory candidate for last May’s Senedd elections and stood unsuccessfully as an independent.

He has since joined the Liberal Democrats and is standing for them in next month’s council elections in Raglan.