Shrewsbury MP deletes tweet calling for Welsh Parliament to be scrapped after backlash

The MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham has deleted a message calling for the Welsh Parliament to be abolished after an online backlash.

Daniel Kawczynski posted the message after the First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that those from high-Covid areas elsewhere in the UK would no longer be able to visit Wales.

Shrewsbury is under Tier 1 restrictions and so will not currently be impacted by the announcement. However, Daniel Kawczynski said that the restrictions were an attempt to “divide our nation”.

“The conduct of the First Minister during this national crisis will have convinced millions in Wales and England, especially for those that live along the border, that the time has come to Abolish the Welsh Assembly [sic] for the sake of our national sanity and security,” he said.

The tweet was deleted a little over an hour later after an angry reaction from other tweeters.

It is the third time this year that Daniel Kawczynski has called for abolishing the Senedd.

In April, he tweeted that he “looked forward to the day when we return to one Parliament and one policy for the whole United Kingdom”.

He said that autonomy for Wales was “a massive additional expense” and “just another layer of red tape,” before again deleting the comment.

Poll

In May he also called for the Welsh Parliament to be abolished, as Covid-19 restrictions were stopping him for going to the beach.

However, the closest beach to Shrewsbury, both by distance and travel duration, is in the Wirral rather than in Wales.

It is currently Conservative policy to support devolution in Wales but to call for a change of government.

“We know it’s not devolution that’s the problem: it’s the party running the Welsh Government that’s the real problem, and that’s why we need change,” Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies said earlier this year.

The most recent poll on the question by BBC/ICM in March showed that 83% backed the Senedd while only 14% wanted to abolish it.

Daniel Kawczynski worked as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones MP between 2012 and 2014. Last week he was appointed trade envoy to Mongolia.