Tories urge people of Wales to remember 20mph row at next election
Emily Price
The Welsh Conservatives have urged the people of Wales to remember the 20mph row when it comes to voting at the next election.
On Wednesday evening (September 27) Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters survived a vote of no confidence which had been tabled by the Tories following backlash to the new road regulation.
The party has shown strong opposition to the new default speed limit which came into force in Wales on September 17.
A Senedd petition calling for the speed limit to be scrapped has so far gained over 440,000 signatures making it the most signed petition in Senedd history.
During the intense debate Shadow Minister for Transport, Natasha Asghar called on the First Minister to “do the right thing” and sack Lee Waters.
She said: “His position is untenable, it’s time for him to go.”
Labour MS for Caerphilly, Hefin David said the Deputy Minister for Climate Change had done “nothing more than his job”.
The vote closed with 16 for the motion of no confidence in Mr Waters whilst 42 were against.
Defeated
Following the debate, the Welsh Conservatives said that Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems had “ignored the wishes of 440,000 people.”
A social media post from the party said: “A vote for the Welsh Conservatives is to stand up for motorists and scrap blanket 20mph speed limits.”
On Wednesday evening, Tom Giffard, MS for South Wales West posted a similar social media message which said: “Their votes don’t matter – but your votes do. Remember how they ignored you today when you cast your ballot at the next election.”
Gareth Davies MS for the Vale of Clwyd followed suit with a message that said: “Tonight I voted No Confidence in Lee Waters for reasons I’ve already explained. Sadly we were defeated as Labour, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dem MSs voted to keep him in post. I hope this is remembered by the people of Wales at the next election!”
Mr Waters said further reviews and monitoring of the new default speed limit would be carried out over a five year period and councils would be offered the chance to express any issues with the criteria for exception roads.
He ended his time speaking in the debate by thanking the people of Wales who had been abiding to the new road regulation.
In a statement Ms Asghar said: “It is completely inexcusable that Labour, Plaid and the Lib Dems have voted to support the Minister responsible for blanket 20mph speed limits, despite the the record-breaking Senedd petition calling for blanket 20mph speed limits to be scrapped.
“It’s clear, blanket 20mph speed limits are damaging livelihoods and jobs, will slow down emergency services, and cost the Welsh economy up to £9bn. That’s why the Deputy Minister’s position is untenable.
“Labour and Lee Waters will continue to carry on with their anti-motorist agenda. Only the Welsh Conservatives will continue holding the Labour Government to account, whist standing up for motorists.”
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So now we know the real agenda behind the stirring up of the 20mph issue! Is this all they have to bring to the table at the next election and will they want the people of Wales to remember if the statistics prove the policy has substantially reduced fatalities and injuries in built up areas. Unlikely ART Davies will be appearing on GB News to advocate that Welsh policy has saved lives.Populist politics show a dearth in real policies and an absence of intellect within the Tory party.
And we will remember a Tories far far more on what they have done denied Wales the Money it should have been entitled to,The state of the N H S the state of the economy the suffering they have inflicted through their Austerity the excess deaths because of them during the Pandemic YES WE WILL REMEMBER so just be quite women and look at the shortcomings of your mob
I bet a lot of them signatures are from English Tories WHO LIVE IN ENGLAND
I don’t think they give a monkeys. They are all Welsh good boy.
How do you know they are WELSH KNOW ALL and if they live in England nothing to do with them BOY
How do you know they are all English? Lawr yn y tafarn ac yn y byd mae pobol yn siarad yes I signed and so did most who could read.
I downloaded the raw data. They were not all Welsh at all good boy.
I Think LAGO TRAFERTH is a QUISLING and a Tory
94% of people who signed the petition had a valid Welsh postcode and valid email addresses, those are the statistics from the Welsh government, however I won’t forget that the leader of the Welsh Conservative party, and I don’t know how many of the Conservative members of the senedd were in favour of the change to 20mph when it was proposed, but it was quite a few.
While it was a Tory London mayor, Boris Johnson, who introduced the
” ULEZ ” rules in London, and various Tory councils in England are now introducing 20mph limits in built up areas, ( I could have said ” blanket introduction ” but we know it is a lie ) MS Asghar tells us it is only the Tory party that stands up for the motorist. You could not make this up if you tried. Do they think we are stupid? Yes, they probably do.
Sadly, there are a worryingly high number of people who act as if they were stupid. 440,000 of them signed that petition, and would probably be stupid enough to vote Tory next Senedd elections, but will probably not bother, as that would prevent them from bemoaning that they had been excluded from the democratic process.
No, I will remember a Welsh Cons leader that supported Boris that partied as people died then tried to cover up. I will remember a Welsh Cons leader that supported Liz Truss as she tanked a nation. I will remember a Welsh Cons leader that supports the Home Sec in the vile and racist language she uses and continues to do so (what is a support of this kind eh?). I will remember the years of austerity, the pain and suffering, the 300k death attributed to austerity that the Conservative policy drove and the Welsh Cons supported. I will remember… Read more »
We’ll also remember PPE contracts handed out like confetti to various mates, hangers on and liggers.
Those yachts don’t buy themselves eh, Ms Mone.
The litany of indecency (as in public duty and affront to the UK public) in office for the Cons is a long one. Until there is a decent ;leadership and change of direction in Welsh Cons, there are there for their owners orders.
So the real reason why the Tories have gone overboard with their ‘blanket’ version of the 20mph debate is finally evident, gaining power. What a surprise! They complain bitterly about an unheard electorate but only when it suits them. What about my vote to stop the second severn crossing changing its name, one of 30,000 people who voted against? Then there’s the EU referendum vote where I was one of the almost 50% of people in Wales who voted to remain? Will you raise your voice about these issues too? I doubt it. Hypocrites.
And also remember what they have robbed Wales off the billions of pounds our share of the money that is being wasted on that white elephant high speed train that doesn’t come near Wales and i doubt it will ever be finished and that’s only one thing that they are robbing us off how many more billions are they shafting Wales off
I’ll now remember the Tories’ role in the 20mph debate for the person who put two fingers up to our Parliament to chase higher things such as being London Mayor, only to lose out to a candidate espousing racist views, then comes back to drive on a massive misinformation agenda. What’s to like?
Given Natasha, whilst a serving MS, chucked her hat into the London Mayor ring, I think her position is ‘untenable’.
She should be careful what she wishes for.
Also remember the Tories voted to support the 20mph speed limit when the initial vote to place in 2020. 7 for, 1 against, 2 abstained and 1 didn’t record a vote.
They had the sense to change their minds. Shows good judgement, its not the 20mph that people object to it is the way it has been implemented and handled.
How many people have signed the petition now. I bet less than 10% are Labour voters. Possibly?
I will try to but there are a list of other things that take precedence in my head and I am getting a bit slow nowadays. So much to remember, austerity, brexit, Bongo Johnson, sleaze, corruption, the dismantling of the NHS, the anti protest bill, the illegal Rwanda plans, the treatment of refugees, the track and trace cash, PPE contracts, partygate, the lost files on MPs and child abuse, the utter disregard for the environment, don’t forget the sewage! Grenfell! The housing crisis, insane levels of child poverty, universal credit, the two child limit..
..Truss! How could I forget her! Blimey must have got squeezed out by planned changes to inheritance tax, anti strike laws, fuel inflation…
And the dodgy appointments of Lords, including a former KGB Russian spy.
You have beautifully rewritten the ‘What have the Romans ever done for us’ sketch and made it ‘What have the Tories ever done TO us’. Paste in your extensive list and Bob’s your uncle, sketch complete. Nicely done but feel free to add more as you think of them.
Thats a long time away. But lets not forget RT with a “20 is plenty” sign. Bandwagons are for cheap politicians, with no substance.
yup, next election will be payback time – 440k and counting.
Most of those 440k are not eligible to vote in Cymru.
Own Goal. The beginning of the end for Welsh Labour. And after 23 years, It can’t come a moment too soon. We’ve regressed immensely under labour rule in all major areas, Helth, economy, education. Time for a change.
Next Elections will be very interesting since the 20mph has affected the core labour voting areas most, i.e. Cardiff and The valleys – you get the Government you vote for.
Karma.
The reason Wales votes Labour all the time is it has spent a quarter of a millennia drumming the message home to the Tories that it does not want them. They have now become so very sick, sordid, deplorable and openly and unashamedly anti Welsh, it will take a Plaid majority to change anything in a normal world UNLESS all that matters to voters now is hatred, alternative truth and total non governance.
Oh we WILL remember how the Tories lied about the 20mph limit at the next election.
We will remember how they dragged a popular procedural modification into a gutter where their despicable minions made (more) death threats against our democratically elected representatives.
We WILL remember. You Tories may regret that we do.
WE WILL REMEMBER AT THE NEXT ELECTION. * We will remember all the years of economic stagnation. We will remember the how the UK Tories denied Wales its £9 Billion share of the rail development revenue from the English HS2 project. Denying the devolving of police & justice which we pay for in our council tax with no representation. The contempt they treat the electorate and parliament both Welsh and UK) with lies. Then there is the damage done, especially to Wales, by Brexit (that argument was based on lies and falsifications. Leaving the European single market/CU has done real… Read more »
Sorry, the nuclear power plant will ‘blight’ our landscape.
“Wales should treat the UK Tories as the Ukraines treat Putin occupiers”
A disgraceful, shameful, appalling, comment. Equally shameful is the the ‘censors’ here have allowed it. This site is a biased, one eyed pathetic forum.
No one has been more damaging to Y CYMRY than Welsh Labour
Will remember liz truss putting hundreds of pounds onto my daughters mortgage after crashing the economy, and the tory lies about the blanket 20 mph.