Pressure mounts on Andrew RT Davies as council leader rebuffs Halal meat claims
Emily Price
A council leader has said the most senior Tory in Wales gave her only five minutes to respond to false Halal meat claims before he published the allegations online attracting the interest of far-right figure Tommy Robinson.
In a letter to Andrew RT Davies, Councillor Lis Burnett confirmed that school lunches across the Vale of Glamorgan offer “both Halal and non-Halal meat” with the options “clearly marked on the menus”.
She added: “It would have taken a superhuman performance to provide a detailed response in the 5 minute period between receipt of your letter and its publication online.
“Sadly, this meant that incorrect assumptions were made and much upset was caused.”
For completeness, my response to Mr ART Davies’ letter in relation to school meals in the Vale. We provide 12,000 nutritious meals every day to children with a wide range of dietary requirements. pic.twitter.com/EsbFIK6pE8
— Lis Burnett🏴🇺🇦🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@lisburnett) August 8, 2024
‘Race baiting’
Her response comes after the leader of the Welsh Conservatives hit out at the Muslim Council of Wales for not allowing him two weeks to respond to an email requesting a meeting with him.
Mr Davies said: “As I hope people will appreciate, I receive a substantial amount of correspondence.”
During a week that saw far-right riots in England, the Tory leader published letters to Welsh councils online asking for reassurances that non-Halal meat options are available for school children.
This sparked a string of offensive Islamophobic comments from followers of his Facebook page which weren’t removed.
He also penned an opinion column for GB News headlined, ‘Children SHOULD NOT be forced to eat Halal school lunches’.
The Muslim Council of Wales said: “Andrew RT Davies is engaging in Islamophobic race-baiting, at a time when we require politicians to be the voice of reason and show moral leadership.
“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 Welsh Tory leader says he’s merely following up the concerns of his constituents.
Welsh Government Minister Dawn Bowden said it was “strange” that Mr Davies chose to publicise “this one piece of casework” adding that “most of us don’t do that”.
Populist
Members of the shadow cabinet have become uneasy in recent days about their leader’s trademark abrasive social media style.
Muslim Welsh Conservative MS Natasha Asghar told Nation.Cymru she had made her position on the Halal meat row “abundantly clear him”.
In recent days, her Newport constituency was daubed with Nazi symbols and racist messages.
Shortly after Mr Davies was branded a “race baiter”, Nation.Cymru published a screen grab from a group chat in which Tory MS Laura Anne Jones made a highly offensive racist slur.
During a WhatsApp exchange about the Chinese owned video app TikTok, the South Wales East MS sent a message saying: “No chinky spies for me!”
Responding to the offensive slur, one of the Tory MSs former staffers sent a heart emoji and a message saying: “That’s the Laura we love”.
She has apologised saying that she regrets using the offensive slur.
Ms Jones was asked to step down from the shadow cabinet in June after police and the Standards Commissioner launched a probe following allegations of false accounting.
Challenge
Calls have been made for Ms Jones to have the whip withdrawn but Andrew RT Davies has so far not responded to Nation.Cymru’s requests for comment.
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.
Several Tory MSs have appeared to publicly criticise their leader in recent days after one of his social media stunts backfired.
Mr Davies posted an image to X and Facebook of a home made ballot to canvas people at the Vale of Glamorgan Show on whether the Senedd should be abolished.
He argued it was “important to find out what people think”.
Paul Davies, Sam Kurtz, Peter Fox, Natasha Asghar, Gareth Davies and Tom Giffard all took to social media in what appeared to be a combined effort to undermine their leader publicly.
Only Joel James MS came out to support Mr Davies posting an image of himself grinning beside the ballot.
Shadow cabinet minister and former leader Paul Davies said: “The Conservative party is clear – it is not Party policy to abolish the Senedd so not sure why this question is even being asked.”
The group were joined by former Welsh Conservative leader Lord Nick Bourne in calling out the current leader.
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I have no time for Tories (almost) whatsoever UNTIL Natasha Askhar (and Rishi Sunak) face filthy racism. I will not have them called foul for their colour, origins nor faiths. (Ditto all others). Please correct me if I’m wrong here but I have not heard a single word from Andrew RT Davies defending Ms Askhar against the racist attacks from some within their Welsh group on WhatsApp which included desecrating her deceased Fathers’ memory and now over Nazi graffiti attacks in her constituency. Y Senedd – our national Parliament in which he sits and disgraces and which he has made… Read more »
I read Mr Davies said that auto replies give him 14 days to reply hence delay in reply to the Muslim Council of Wales? If correct. This raises a few issues. The first twitter post on halal must have garnered a response or two, it was the main intent. Was the second letter based on an email in under 14 days from the first twitter post. Or does he only reply quickly to twitter replies and likes. Must be interesting when Sunak emailed ARTD, get back to you in 14 days, farage asking him to be on his show tomorrow,… Read more »
ARTD rapidly moving towards his removal from leadership of Tories in Senedd. Next leader will have dubious honour of being in charge when they get wiped out at next Senedd GE.
Yes, but what will fill the vacuum?
Reform. Led by its new Welsh leader, ARTD.
I hope Labour are wiped out after the damage they have inflicted in Wales over the last 25 years
The only positive thing I will take from this saga is that it now shows all that the anti-Welsh racist Conservatives and Islamophobe Andrew RT Davies should NEVER be allowed to hold the keys to power in Wales.
Does ART Davies have a sinister motive behind these tweets where he misrepresents the truth, it is now a regular thing with him, money paid to immigrants, blanket speed limit, no choice of meat for schoolchildren. With his airtime on gbnews and inflammatory articles in the press, is he driving people towards reform, by deliberately damaging the image of the Tory party, like his butty 30p Lee did , just to further the far right cause. As a voter, I have to ask this question so that people can know what is going on.
cheerio cheerio cheerio 👋
He really didn’t engage his brain before sounding off on this issue. Unfortunate, because his critique of Vaughan Gethin has, for once, been generally measured and balanced..