Third of Welsh Conservative candidates live outside of Wales
A third of Conservative general election candidates for Welsh constituencies live outside the country.
Official lists of candidates published by local authorities reveal that the Conservative candidate in 13 of 40 Welsh seats do not have a home address in Wales.
That list includes target seats for the Tories, such as Cardiff North and Ynys Môn, where their candidates are listed as living in London.
The Conservative candidate for Ynys Môn has the furthest to travel between her home in Kensington and would-be constituency at 297 miles.
That’s closely followed by the candidate for Arfon who lives 260 miles away in the Enfield Southgate constituency and a Conservative councillor in West Suffolk standing in Arfon.
Combined, the 13 Conservative candidates based outside Wales have 2,265 miles to travel between their homes and the constituencies they’re contesting. The full list is:
| Constituency contesting | Constituency of Home Address | Distance |
| Neath | Tewkesbury | 91 miles |
| Swansea West | Stroud | 95 miles |
| Cynon Valley | Salisbury | 112 miles |
| Cardiff Central | Sutton Coldfield | 121 miles |
| Llanelli | Devizes | 121 miles |
| Cardiff South and Penarth | Spelthorne | 141 miles |
| Cardiff North | Ealing Central and Acton | 144 miles |
| Aberavon | Bermondsey and Old Southwark | 181 miles |
| Alyn and Deeside | Hampstead and Kilburn | 212 miles |
| Dwyfor Meirionnydd | Wimbledon | 241 miles |
| Aberconwy | West Suffolk | 259 miles |
| Arfon | Enfield Southgate | 260 miles |
| Ynys Môn | Kensington | 287 miles |
Today a Welsh Conservative member of the Senedd said that the candidate selection process has “fallen short”.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Nick Ramsay said that “there is no use pretending that the last couple of weeks haven’t been difficult”.
“I’ll be honest – I think that there are lessons to be learnt from this.
“I think that there are lessons to be learnt from each election. Other parties have their problems as well.”
Candidates
Four other parties are also fielding a smaller number of candidates who live outside Wales.
Five of the Brexit party’s 31 candidates in Wales live outside the country. Their candidates for Gower, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, Wrexham, Cardiff North and Neath live in Wiltshire, North Shropshire, North East Somerset, Tonbridge and Hornsey and Wood Green respectively.
The Liberal Democrat candidate for Montgomeryshire is based in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
The Labour candidate for Ynys Mon is based in Vauxhall and the Gwlad, Gwlad candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan is based in Bexley and Sidcup.
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Nothing new here. Tories have a history of shipping in wet inexperienced candidates who get immersed in hopeless tasks as a way of blooding them. It’s all part of the old upper class toff lifestyle which most of them spend their entire daft lives craving.
Typical! How will they know their area?!
Did Jacob Rees-Mogg ever stand in Wales? I thought he did but it isn’t mentioned on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Rees-Mogg
No, he stood in one of the Glasgow seats in 1992. Boris stood in North Wales in 1997.
Yes, it was to give him a taster – to ‘blood’ him; they didn’t expect him to win, and he didn’t. Same with young Virginia in Ynys Mon, I imagine. Then it’s back to the Home Counties to have a crack at a safe or winnable seat.
Boris walked down our road with his daft haircut and two party workers. My mam was watching him from behind the curtains.
Kensington? Well they do have very fine lobster in Mon.
Ironically, it will be quicker for the Ynys Môn Tory candidate to travel to her constituency than it is for me to travel to my own capital.
lets get some decent infrastructure and you could be down to Cardiff in three hours or so. And if the candidate from Kensington can get from A to B quicker she must be breaking the speed limit or flying! most estimates make it a longer journey to Kensington – both time and distance. I am an ex dispatch rider/motorcycle courier. Done the run from HTV culverhouse to S4C in caernarfon amongst many other routes.