No plans for emergency meeting over Tory racism row – Welsh Conservative chair
Emily Price
There are no plans for the Welsh Tories to hold an emergency meeting concerning allegations of racism within the party.
The Chair of the Welsh Conservative Sam Kurtz told Nation.Cymru: “No requests for a meeting have been received. The Group will meet after the Welsh Parliament recess in September, as scheduled.”
His comments came after former leader Lord Nick Bourne told BBC Radio Wales there should be a meeting to make clear that “we are anti-racism, we will not tolerate Islamophobia and we will not tolerate anti-Muslim behaviour”.
Speaking on Sunday Supplement, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth said: “During this election campaign and indeed before it, nobody has ever raised the issue of Halal meat on the doorstep or on the phone canvassing. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing we should be focusing on.”
Calling for the 2026 Senedd election to be fought from the centre as opposed to the right, Lord Bourne said: “The exposure that Reform is going to get now that they have elected politicians in Westminster may well show what a busted flush they are.
“I would leave all that sort of thing to Farage or Tommy Robinson on his lounger from Greece – that’s not the party we are, we are not that party, we are a party of the moderate right and that should be reflected in the way we approach politics in Wales.”
‘Race-baiting’
Pressure has been mounting on Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies after the Muslim Council of Wales accused him of “Islamophobic race baiting” last week.
In a statement the council said: “The hamfisted attempts at dog-whistle racism may lead to more engagement online for Mr Davies, but have real consequences on our streets and in our mosques.”
The group’s intervention came after a series of social media posts by Mr Davies about non-Halal meat options in Welsh schools.
The Tory leader went viral on X, formally Twitter, after the issue was amplified by far-right figure Tommy Robinson.
He also penned an opinion column for GB News headlined, ‘Children SHOULD NOT be forced to eat Halal school lunches’.
Mr Davies has entirely rejected the criticism saying he is following up on the concerns of his constituents.
Racist slur
Welsh Conservative Senedd members have become uneasy in recent days about their leader’s trademark abrasive social media style and his lack of action over a racist slur sent in a text by a back bench MS.
Laura Anne Jones branded the Chinese owners of TikTok, “chinky spies” in a staff group chat.
She apologised for the highly offensive term – but has not yet had the party whip withdrawn.
Lord Bourne joins Tory MSs Natasha Asghar and Peter Fox in publicly speaking out about the allegations of racism facing the Welsh Conservatives.
Peter Fox said: “There is no room for racism in my party, or indeed in any party, and there should be no tolerance of it in any form. Where it does raise its ugly head it needs to be dealt with.”
Ms Asghar, one of two Muslim MSs in the Tory Senedd group said: “Whilst there might be a few with totally warped and unacceptable views, the majority of us are decent, tolerant, and accepting people.”
Tory sources told us there could be plans for a leadership challenge but there are concerns that the group wouldn’t unite behind a successor.
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So, RT and others in his party make racist comments, members hand wave and say they’re all thoroughly decent folk and then they all do absolutely nothing.
Unelectable.
Andrew RT’s political style has always for me rather recalled the bluebottles which regularly crash into my kitchen or front room at this time of year: they barge in and noisily zoom about without any obvious purpose or sense of direction, until I manage by one means or another to evict them from my premises. I did briefly think that Mr Davies might have got a better grip on sensible politics when, in response to Vaughan Gething’s ineptitude he managed to come up with a sustained calm and forensic interrogation of Gething’s extraordinary and indefensible political positioning. But evidently not… Read more »
All good points. My take on ARTD has been for a long time, that he plays to a tiny but noisy gallery. There are people in the Welsh Conservatives who understand that he makes them unelectable but they seem incapable of removing him. He flirts with fringe groups like Abolish instead of genuinely bringing anything positive to offer as policy or challenge Labour’s failures. As for Gething, Davies just sensed blood in the water. He’s at his happiest sticking the knife in but he has nothing to offer otherwise. He stirs up all sorts of nastiness. All he stands for… Read more »
Thats a huge bulge under th rug they have. These people are evil. they stand for nothing of the traditional valleys warmth, my familt instilled in me. Pop over to England and riot
The Conservative party is riddled from top to bottom with Islamophobes. Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies is the mere tip of a Tory trash heap whose stench taints society. And even though he’s been race baiting Muslims, including his attempt to whip up anti-devolution sentiment by suggesting abolishing our Senedd Cymru, nothing has been done to remove those with extreme views because there are so many xenophobes & racists lying in plain sight would take a lifetime to process.
Interventions on the subject of racism from a former leader plus a sitting member of the group (‘warped and unacceptable views’) and the response is no change necessary. This will be noted by the electorate pending the Senedd election in 2026. The Welsh Tory group and the runners for their masters’ leadership election at the UK level show clearly their direction of travel.
Just one small point: Islam is not a race, it’s a religion.
Mr Davies has set the bar low for a leader (did Cummings have the say here?), I doubt there are no capable people to take his post and lead the Welsh cons in a competent way. Take a step back if you value gb news and those that are left, there is your pool of new leaders.
Wonder how Tory HQ has this tied up given they messed everything else up. Three awful PM’s have shown that doing the same thing over and over leads to failure.