Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Tory general election wipeout in Wales was a ‘kick in the guts‘ – Andrew RT Davies

30 Sep 2024 4 minute read
Andrew RT Davies outside the Pierhead in Cardiff Bay.

Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies has described the loss of all of his party’s MPs at the last general election as ‘brutal’.

In July, the Tories lost all 14 Welsh seats they won in 2019 as Labour finished with 27, Plaid Cymru picked up four seats and the Liberal Democrats one.

Welsh secretary David TC Davies was the party’s most prominent victim as three other former Wales secretaries, Alun Cairns, Simon Hart and Stephen Crabb, were also ousted

Despite being left with no MPs, Mr Davies told the PA news agency he believes the Conservatives “can make the difference in 2026” at the next Senedd poll.

The MS for South Wales Central accused Labour – which titled its UK-wide general election manifesto Change earlier this year – of having presided over “managed decline” in Cardiff Bay.

Reflect

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Mr Davies said: “Well, I hope that at this conference today, we all reflect on how we felt on July 5 – that kick in the guts and how brutal that was.

“And we have to say sorry to the centre right vote who looked at us and felt that they could not vote for us, and sadly in Wales we don’t have any MPs.

“But if we had Welsh MPs and we had a Conservative government in Westminster, the 400,000 pensioner households that are losing their winter fuel allowance this winter wouldn’t be losing that because we had it in our manifesto not to take that away.”

The Westminster Government announced plans to slim down the previously universal winter fuel payments scheme in July, with funding of up to £300 available only to certain benefits claimants this year.

Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves described a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances, made up of unfunded spending commitments by the previous Conservative government.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said at her party’s conference in Liverpool last Wednesday: “This Labour Government has done more to help the poorest pensioners in the last two months than the Tories did in 14 years – the biggest ever drive to increase pension credit uptake, backed by our commitment to the pensions triple lock.”

Welsh economy

But the new arrangements will strip the Welsh economy of £110 million, according to the Welsh Conservatives.

“When you have Welsh Conservatives speaking on Wales’s behalf in Westminster, you don’t get the disastrous decisions such as the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance,” Mr Davies said.

Asked why his party failed to win a single seat in Wales, he said: “Well, we have to be held to account.

“When we make commitments, we deliver on those commitments. Immigration is a good point where a lot of people came back to us and said, ‘when David Cameron became prime minister in 2010 you said you’ll get immigration down to the tens of thousands’.

“Regrettably, we know that’s not the case. And we have to say sorry for not doing that.”

Mr Davies said the previous government’s plan to send some asylum seekers arriving in small boats to Rwanda in Africa would have been “a viable deterrent”.

Leadership challenge

On his position as leader, he said: “Well, leadership is always open to challenge and it’s entirely in the gift of any member to decide if they want to throw their hat in the ring.

“I’m never frightened of a challenge.”

He continued: “At the basis of what we delivered from my position of leader in the Senedd – the largest opposition group with the most diverse make up, both in youth and in ethnicity – I think there is a huge opportunity for us to show to the people of Wales that we are the party that can make the difference in 2026.

“And I am the person to do that because I have this huge appetite to make sure that Wales is at the top of the league table, not the managed decline that Labour, Plaid and the Liberals have delivered over 25 years.”

Mr Davies said: “We’re the party of change, and we’ll make that change happen.”


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
11 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jeff
Jeff
4 days ago

The bloke ignores the millions his party has forced into food a fuel poverty and afraid they will not be in their house at some point because of evictions.

He still wants to harm vulnerable people with Rwanda, this is not a centre right party at the moment, it is far right and they got stuffed because of the lies and mess the UK is in BECAUSE of his party. Why doesn’t he just goose step into the sunset and let a capable leader in, Wales needs good opposition, not a broken record.

Llyn
Llyn
4 days ago

So after 14 years of chaos, incompetence and austerity the only thing that Andrew RT Davies points to as a reason for the Tories getting smashed in the General Election is immigration! Is that why they lost scores of seats to parties to the left of them? The Plaid, Liberal and Labour voters simply wanted more draconian immigration policies?

Peter Cuthbert
Peter Cuthbert
4 days ago
Reply to  Llyn

“We’re the party of change, and we’ll make that change happen.” Clearly ARTD is not a reader of current affairs from reputable sources. Why would he quote the Labour Party’s slogan? In everything he says it is clear that he has no clue about the real world. Anyway, we don’t need a new centre right government in the UK, we have just elected one.

Annibendod
Annibendod
4 days ago

Tell us ARTD2, how many food banks opened in 14 years of Tory government? There we are then.

CapM
CapM
4 days ago

Dead man walking.
Now that there’s no outlet for ambitions in Westminster, those Tory ex MPs are going to resent a buffoon squatting on top of a Senedd closed list.

Crabb’s already wielding his pincers.

Cablestreet
Cablestreet
4 days ago

“Kick in the guts”? Sounds more like he’s had a kick in the head!

Rhosddu
Rhosddu
4 days ago
Reply to  Cablestreet

A kick in the guts, perhaps. But surely it came as no great surprise? Apart from their speed-limit ‘blanket’, the Tory Welsh branch has got nothing.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
4 days ago

Yesterday, the guy was hinting very strongly that the very future of Y Senedd should be in question. Now he wants to fight the 2026 election to the place he would scrap. As the fans of a failing football team chant at their manager ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’.

Annibendod
Annibendod
4 days ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

Good analogy. Would love to see Tory voters chant that at him. Utter buffoon of a man.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
4 days ago

Again Welsh Tory whinger Andrew RT Davies, ever the deluded one, laments the Conservative wipe out in Wales last general election and those suffering austerity and job losses with Tata Steel. It’s all self-pity. Less we all forget. The 14 years of shambolic Tory rule where billions were lost in corruption & fraud. There was sleaze & sex scandal galore. Tens of thousands died of Covid under your watch. There was partygate where Boris Johnson & Rishi Sunak partied as families mourned the death of their loved ones. That’s why your party was wiped out in Wales and will be… Read more »

Erisian
Erisian
3 days ago

Only a kick? I’d call it total eviceration!

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.