THE Senedd member for Caerphilly could be censured by the Welsh Parliament over an "unwarranted and childish outburst" on Twitter.

Hefin David, who has represented the constituency since 2016, found himself in hot water over a tweet he posted in March this year.

The Senedd's standards committee has this week recommended he be censured over the "unwanted" tweet - which was directed at a specific person and referred to their mother - and members said his conduct "fell very far below the required standards".

They noted Labour MS Dr David had apologised to the person he tweeted, and "quickly" removed the message in question.

But they felt the "abusive use of social media of the kind employed by Dr David reflects badly on him but also tends to bring the Senedd into disrepute".

The Senedd's standards commissioner called the tweet in question "a vulgar and grossly offensive personal attack on the subject [and family members] which affected their dignity".

The complaint about Dr David's case had been made by Huw Jackson, a former Plaid Cymru town councillor for Caerphilly.

Following the committee's recommendation, he said: "I complained because I was so appalled at the language used by the Senedd member.

"As the Standards Commissioner found the comments by Hefin David were ‘vulgar and grossly’ offensive. There was no provocation that could have in any way justified such appalling behaviour.

"The public has every right to expect high standards from their Senedd Members. But this is the second time that it has been recommended that Hefin David should face censure.

"Last time he called someone an “utter k***” before later referring to him as a “coc oen” which means lamb’s c*** in Welsh, remarks found to be abusive. Hefin David turns into a wild keyboard warrior when he uses social media. He needs to show much greater judgement in future to avoid being seen by the public as an internet troll.

"I do hope that tougher action will now be taken against the Senedd member."

Dr David was contacted for comment. In his correspondence with the standards commissioner, the Caerphilly MS said he had "acknowledged it was inappropriate, apologised to [the subject] via a public tweet and deleted the tweet".

The committee's recommendation will be presented to the Welsh Parliament.