Former Welsh Tory leader wins Senedd seat

Emily Price 

Former Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has been elected as one of the six Senedd Members to represent the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency.

The former South Wales Central MS won the fourth seat in the constituency while Plaid Cymru won 27,407 votes with Reform UK coming second with 24,602 votes.

Davies had vowed early on in his campaign to work with “like-minded” individuals in the Welsh Parliament, hinting at a team up with Reform UK.

It led to accusations that he was trying to sabotage his own party’s Senedd election campaign.

Davies resigned as the leader of the Welsh Conservative Senedd group in November 2024 following several months of discontent among his collegues over the direction he was taking his party.

It came amid disastrous general election results for the Tories in Wales, as well as concern over comments he made about halal meat in schools and a homemade ballot box he constructed to gauge public opinion on whether the Senedd should continue to exist.

Despite narrowly winning a confidence vote, his group of 16 was split almost halfway, and Davies quit as leader saying his position was “untenable”.

In his letter of resignation, he accused his party colleagues of undermining him and warned the Conservatives were facing electoral “oblivion”.

In recent months, questions have been raised about whether the former Tory leader would defect to Reform UK.

But Davies has previously indicated his lifelong commitment to the Conservative party, often saying, “I was blue when I was born, and I’ll be blue when I die”.

He joined the Welsh Conservatives in 1997 and stood as a parliamentary candidate in Cardiff West in 2001 and in Brecon and Radnorshire in 2005.

He was elected in 2007 on the South Wales Central regional list and returned to the fourth Assembly in 2011 and the fifth Assembly in 2016.

Davies has held several Conservative shadow ministerial posts including transport, education and more notably during the Covid-19 pandemic, health.

The farmer-turned politician was elected the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in 2011 and was replaced by Paul Davies after he stood down in 2018 amid friction within his group over his pro-Brexit stance.

Davie was reappointed as leader in 2021 following the resignation of Paul Davies who had become embroiled in a scandal involving breaches of Welsh Covid-19 regulations.