Former Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party staffer appointed head of comms for Senedd Tories
Emily Price
A key staffer who previously worked for an Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party member has been appointed the new head of comms for the Welsh Conservative Senedd group.
Conor Holohan previously worked for Mark Reckless from 2018 until 2021 – firstly as a senior researcher then as a senior advisor.
Reckless is a former UKIP MP who went on to join the Conservative Group but left in 2019 over the party’s failure to deliver Brexit.
In May 2019, Reckless made moves to form a new Brexit Party group in the Senedd but was criticised by pro-devolution Brexit Party volunteers when he suggested that he would support the campaign to abolish the Senedd.
He then left and joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party.
Despite being employed by Mr Reckless, Nation.Cymru has obtained a press release sent from Holohan’s Senedd email address in March 2021 with the title: “ABOLISH PARTY ACCUSES BBC OF BIAS OVER ELECTION COVERAGE GUIDELINES.”
On LinkedIn, Holohan confirms he worked in two different roles for Reckless until he was made redundant when Reckless lost his seat.
He also previously ran the hard right blog Bubble Wales alongside the former UKIP official Crispin John who was found to have stolen equipment worth almost £2,000 from the Senedd.
Holohan went on to manage communications for the Leader of the Opposition in Wales, Andrew RT Davies before leaving the Senedd to work as a media campaign manager for the Tax Payers Alliance.
In 2022, Mr Holohan stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative council candidate in Grangetown, Cardiff.
Comms
A Tory source has confirmed that Holohan returned to the Welsh Conservatives staff around Christmas time last year as the Senedd group’s head of comms.
A Welsh Labour source said: “Having so recently led the campaign to abolish the Senedd many would see it as an odd move to take a role with a party that is ‘committed’ to the principle of the Senedd.
“It is however not such a leap as the Welsh Conservatives are willing to jump on any populist bandwagon including entertaining the idea of abolishing the institution they sit in.”
Welsh Conservative Chief of Staff Paul Smith declined to comment and instead threatened to report Nation.Cymru to IPSO, citing the Editors’ Code of Conduct.
Mr Smith demonstrated a lack of understanding of the Code as it is in the public interest to draw attention to the fact the head of comms working for the opposition in Wales was formerly an aide to an elected representative of a fringe party that campaigned for the abolition of the Welsh Parliament.
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I hope he has a table for one in the canteen…
Shouldn’t be too difficult. He sounds a real class act just like ARTD and many of the other Tory tvrds.
Are we surprised? These slugs all slither to the same place. Truly disgusting just how much sway the anti-Wales crowd has within the tories in Wales
These rotten kippers keep on turning up, like a bad penny, and are creating a dreadful stink in the tóraidhe party.
Haven’t they created enough mayhem with their disastrous brexit??
GET THEM GONE!
And the slide to the far right gathers pace with the Tory party in Cymru , haning on to the coat tails of Westminster Tory’s.
Where did GEORGE PYKOV end up? Which Tory MP was it who took him on as soon as Grifter Hamilton was booted off the Senedd? The trail of slime isn’t clear.
I seem to recall the Taxpayers Alliance having very little to say about the waste of money during covid.
But you are only scratching at the surface of a giant unpolished TURD. The truth about Abolish Czar RICHARD SUCHORZEWSKI will sooner or later out, and then I’ll have much dirt to dish, but until then………………… This Dick was part of UKIP Wales and had worked for UKIP Senedd member Gareth Bennett AM, whose own Senedd-employed and funded “aide” CRISPIN JOHN was convicted in 2021 of STEALING almost £2,000 of office equipment from the taxpayer. Crispin John then understandably vanished from the landscape. UKIP tried to blame the Senedd for employing him in the first place Another of these slugs… Read more »
More proof as if we needed it that the Tories are themselves an abolish Cymru party. If they got into power here, they would lock the front door of Y Senedd, throw the keys in the bay and catch a train, first class on their final expenses claim, straight to Paddington, cab to Westminster, pop open the champers and sneer back at us. Get rid of all of them completely.
Given opposition to the existence of devolution is a quality that will get you selected as a Conservative MS candidate, what makes you think that Conservatives are “committed” to devolution?
I’d have thought that Gwlad would be up for a challenge in this regard. There is no real Welsh conservative voice in the Tory Party anymore. Just a bunch of far right populist British Nationalist lickspittles. There’s a genuine democratic hole to be filled.
Tory party hiring a staffer from a verified loser then.
That fits.
CONOR HOLORAN.
GEORGE PYKOV.
CRISPIN JOHN.
How many more slithered into TORY JOBS? These slugs all need to be tracked and monitored.
NEIL HAMILTON now gone from UKIP too so wonder if the master slug will slime its way back into the Tories if he really ever left them.
I would be very interested to know what think tanks are also heavily into the Welsh Cons. We know ARTD like the TPA (who do not disclose full funding). I expect a lot of dots here not joined up yet.
Yes, and the tpa (taxpayers alliance) don’t really represent taxpayers—they are another clandestine lobby group of the super-rich, like the iea (institute of economic affairs), both of tufton street!
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds-you/
The Welsh Tories have the knack of employing complete buffoons. May it continue. 🥴🇬🇧 #AbolishTheTories
This says more about the direction of the ARTD party in Wales rather than this guy who ‘ chwarae teg ‘ has never his agenda .
This type of person runs with the fox and the hounds. No scruples or sentiments.
A man who has continually kept dubious company.