Tory MP backs Welsh Conservative leader’s call for no more devolution to Wales
A Welsh Conservative MP has backed the party Senedd’s leader’s call to the party’s leadership contenders to commit to no more devolution for Wales if they become Prime Minister.
In an article written for the Sunday Times, but which did not appear online or in the paper’s e-edition, Welsh leader Andrew RT Davies made three demands of whoever won the leadership race in September.
He called for a commitment not to expand the Senedd’s powers, to make St David’s Day a bank holiday and to ensure more rail funding for Wales to be spent by network rail.
“It must be made clear that, under a Conservative government, no further powers will be devolved to Cardiff Bay. Welsh Government have the tools to fix our waiting lists and our creaking public services already,” he said.
His calls for no new powers was backed by Brecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones in an interview with BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement, although she said that she had not yet read it.
“I haven’t read Andrews article, but I certainly will do I think there’s a lot in there I can get along with,” she said.
“I think what’s important is we restore public services rather than talk about powers. I mean, I’d like to see more jobs created across the whole of Wales. Rather than just in the centre and Cardiff Bay.”
‘Tear apart’
She however raised doubts about the creation of a new St David’s Day Bank Holiday and more investment in rail.
“Well, the problem with the bank holidays is it does cost an awful lot of people a lot of money but you know, Wales certainly deserves a bank holiday,” she said.
“It’s just a question of whether now is the right time I don’t know.”
Of the spending by Network Rail she said: “Well, I think that goes back into the category of not making big funding promises before you’re clear about how you’re going to pay for them. And right now, when we are the most important thing facing people at the moment, is the cost of living challenge.”
Andrew RT Davies had earlier said that the next Prime Minister would need to govern for the entire Union.
“In the face of a separatist government in Scotland desperate to tear apart the UK, and a government in Cardiff Bay all too keen to indulge in separatism, we need a Prime Minister that can remind people across the UK how the Union not just works for them, but benefits them and their families,” he said.
He added that: “Delivering significant rail improvement will also be the perfect way of showing that, while Labour is holding Wales back, the Conservatives are unleashing Wales’ potential.”
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When ever these idiots open their mouths, it just makes you want to curl up and die.
Are they really Welsh? Total and utter scum.
They can’t be. The idea of a Welsh Conservative is an oxymoron.
I disagree. It is perfectly possible to be a Welsh Conservative, just like it is possible to be a Peruvian Fascist or an Egyptian Communist or a Russian Socialist. What is true is that Welsh Conservatives have a different vision for the future of Wales compared with Plaid and Llafur voters. Personally Plaid’s vision is what resonates with me, but I would never call the Tories scum because most of their supporters are not scum, just misguided.
Misguided? That implies a naivety, a misunderstanding of what the party represents, you know the deportation of refugees to Rwanda, the lies over covid parties, the Russian money, Johnson having secret meetings with KGB officers without his security detail or civil servants, Johnsons culpability in extending Nazinine Radcliffe’s jail term in Iran, the tories destruction of workers rights, destruction of unions, increased income tax while lowering corporate tax, refusing to give Wales our own bank holiday, refusing to devolve the crown estate to Wales, undermining our democratically elected government, openly working to abolish the Senedd, refusing Wales to create its… Read more »
The Anti-Welsh Party
Does Davies really believe that curtailing devolution is going to win his party more seats ine the next Senedd election?
It’s actually a clever strategy – they get to simultaneously claim support for devolution (by re-defining it from a process to a fixed property; “we already HAVE devolution, why spoil it?” sort of thing) and playing on a classic trope in the Western hemisphere – government sucks.
I suspect he does know he won’t win any more seats (or relevancy) in Wales, and that is precisely why he wants to stop more devolution coming to Wales.
He is panicking. The more devolution we get, and the higher the support for independence, the higher his chances and that of his party of becoming a complete irrelevance.
Hence, their constant toy throwing out of the pram. It’s quite pathetic really.
Polling consistently demonstrates that the Welsh electorate is in favour of devolution or expanding its scope. We keep voting for pro-devolution parties. Ergo your opening statement is entirely errant. In the second part you make a sweeping statement simplifying what is a complex issue with negative imacts from demographics, poverty and the economy which are the consequences of UK Govt’s econo-political model as they interplay with local governance at a Welsh level. Of course, Welsh Govt isn’t without blame but then Wales’ socio-economic falling behind long predates the existence of Senedd and is far more a product of UK governance.… Read more »
Tory MPs in Wales – the best recruiting tool for Welsh independence we could ask for! ☺️
Er numerous polls have shown a majority of people in Wales support further devolution!
Perhaps these loud mouths could just shut up for the duration of their leadership contest … or even longer.
Can anyone name another country (apart from Scotland) in whose Parliament a party sits which clearly states its’ hatred for that country and is in that Parliament for the sole purpose of closing down the Parliament they are sitting in and with it, the country itself?
maybe the DUP? Another bunch of Britnats.
Please try to understand that its not devolution thats the problem its the current Welsh Labour Government.
If you believe that their policies are failing Wales then vote them out at the next election For example I happen to think that the current UK government is very incompetent, that doesn’t mean I think Westminster should be stripped of its powers and run from Brussels, it means I will vote them out
That odious little tick Davies, opens his mouth again, in an attempt to deny the people of Cymru democracy. He wants money spent here, but he also wants the elected Gov to have no say in how it is used. That is what a dictatorship is Mr Davies, not democracy,.Where else does an elected Gov not get to carry out its election promises, because the opposition do not like it. We elected the Gov and not you, because of policy, we dont want you or your ideas, that is why you are in perpetual opposition.
So England knows best does it? Why should Scotland and Northern Ireland have more devolution than Wales? Are we some sort of second class nation?
Does he want that “thin, blue water” or not?
Still trying to “disappear” my nation. What an arse.
ARTD is a national asset for Wales. He is secure in representing the 20 plus percentage plus of our nation who vote 🗳 his way come what may. Having got it wrong 😑 on the last days of Boris and wrong again on the longevity of the late Simon H ,..he wisely is keeping his powder dry on the leadership. Seeing that our new Governor General is of the Melding tendency in the Tory Party he no doubt is keeping his head down till the Autumn….when “ the right sort of person” might be given that role. ARTD needs now… Read more »
More rail investment for Wales would be simple if they accepted a Barnett formula equivalent for HS2
I read all newspapers on line and in and they are saying in Ukraine that Russia is trying to steal their History the English stole wales as well
Well said. And the very same Welsh Tory traitors wear Union /Ukrainian flag lapel pins, cry crocodile tears, whilst lamenting Russia’s annexation of the Crimea & Donbas region forgetting they support a false British Union born out of England’s annexation of Wales.
Little Englander Andrew RT Davies’s treachery knows no limit.. He & Anglophile Fay Jones hypocrisy makes me sick. Both are living on borrowed time. The Welsh electorate will be their judge & jury. And If Wales wants more devolution, It’s our right to have not to theirs to withhold.
I agree we don’t want more devolution – we want complete independence.
I’m baffled by this red faced lardarse, He doesn’t want Wales to have any say in our future, but still takes a wage from being a member of the Senedd.
Must be because his Westminster handlers dont want him in Westminster, or they’ve forgotton who he is … again.
The Tory’s are finished in Wales and not before time. RT Davies is a Johnson loving anti-welsh individual and the thought of him being in charge of the decisions in the Senydd is quite frankly horrifying.
RT makes johnson look like a serious politician
How on earth did you contact Feeble Fay? Her constituents even hold seances in case she has passed beyond the veil while they wait for her to respond.
I was lucky. She took a month to reply to something i didn’t even ask about. My brother got the exact same letter. Lame at best. Sooner the tories banished to the dustbin of history the better.
Sorry, but I don’t recall the conservative party winning a majority here in Wales, be it at Cardiff or Westminster.
If they are speaking on our behalf, it’s certainly not through any democratic mandate.