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Tory leadership duo accused of stirring up division after Cardiff hustings

04 Aug 2022 3 minute read
Liz Truss speaking at the All Nations Centre in Cardiff. Photo Jacob King PA Images

Tory Leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been accused of stirring up division following yesterday’s hustings event in Cardiff.

Ms Truss attacked First Minister Mark Drakeford during the flying visit, calling him a “low energy version of Jeremy Corbyn” just days after calling Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon an “attention seeker”, and attacked the Welsh Government’s decision to scrap the M4 relief road in 2019.

Ahead of the debate, Rishi Sunak’s camp floated plans to potentially criminalise supporters of Welsh and later admitted that he had no knowledge of the flagship Future Generations Act.

Disdain

Plaid Cymru Westminster Leader Liz Saville Roberts said that the two remaining candidates to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister know very little of the political issues facing people in Wales and accused them of “disdain”.

“In Wales we do grown up politics,” she said.

“We’ve shown that it is possible to work across political divides to deliver real change for the people that need it, improving people’s lives where we can, like providing free school meals.

“Yet, rather than offering a serious proposal for reducing household bills through direct intervention – an issue that they have both played a hand in bringing about – both Conservative candidates have committed to riding roughshod over the devolved powers of Wales.

“Truss and Sunak could have learnt a lot on their flying visit to Wales, but instead they have only seen it as an opportunity to stir up tensions and divisions.

“They will take any opportunity to demonise the Welsh NHS and education sector, they have given false promises of splendid post-Brexit days ahead while plotting to strip Wales of its sovereignty and deny democracy.

“Truss’s comments about the First Minister of Scotland have shown that she has no respect for the democratic will of the devolved nations, and Sunak’s comments about criminalising those who peacefully call for the independence of their own country – classing them as terrorists – is deeply worrying and bounding into the surreal.”

Failure

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds also criticised both candidates saying they have long records of failure when it comes to delivering for Wales. She also said the promises they made were nothing more than “hot air”.

“Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and the Conservatives have a long record of failing to deliver for Wales and that is unlikely to change after this leadership contest,” she said.

“Liz Truss sold our Welsh farmers down the river in order to sign the one-sided Australian and New Zealand trade deals.

“Meanwhile Rishi Sunak, as Chancellor, failed to deliver the infrastructure investment needed to turbocharge the Welsh economy, including refusing to give us our fair share of HS2 funding.

“Additionally, he was almost entirely absent in the cost-of-living crisis, failing to support Welsh families and instead raising their taxes to the highest level in decades.

“The Conservative party as a whole failed to keep their promise that Wales would not lose a single penny post-Brexit with Wales set to lose £772 million between 2021 and 2025.”


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G Horton-Jones
G Horton-Jones
1 year ago

Despite everything we are still here and always will be

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  G Horton-Jones

‘Er gwaetha pawb a phopeth, ry’n ni yma o hyd’. Diolch Dafydd Iwan.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
1 year ago
Reply to  G Horton-Jones

Yeah, but in what state?

Aled Rees
Aled Rees
1 year ago

what a choice tory members have in these two.It’s a bit like having to chose between two dirty portaloos at a music festival.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago

I back Liz …. Savile Roberts that is. She is a beacon of truth in a hurricane of lies.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

Saville sorry.

Richard
Richard
1 year ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

They say overhearing conversations is not recommended!! 🥹

However on the way back from Brussels with my wife a fortnight ago I found my euro star table for 4 with two guys who boarded at Lille .

They discussed the Tory leadership and what a poor choice there was for their party . They then mentioned two fellow MPs from across the floor who impressed them …..

and yes LSR was one and in company with a new Lib Dem MP from I think Cambridge…

Da Iawn Liz

Last edited 1 year ago by Richard
Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard

Wow! Tories complimenting OUR Liz. That was worth overhearing.

The Original Mark
The Original Mark
1 year ago

So who was she talking to last night, all the immigrant little englanders, the britnats, or was she firing a warning shot, just to let Wales know what to expect. What a vile, nasty small minded egotistical person, UK politics would be a lot better off without people like this.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Two Tory political activists brought their Farage Tribute Act to Wales in an attempt to terrorise the people of Wales…much like the armed forces of China are doing to Taiwan…or like the New Zealand rugby team performing the Haka dance

Llŷn expat
Llŷn expat
1 year ago

And yet so many more Welsh people vote for this lot than for Plaid Cymru.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
1 year ago
Reply to  Llŷn expat

Be specific. There is a huge difference between voters in Wales and Welsh voters. The voting age population of Brecon and Radnor has 44% born in England.

Llŷn expat
Llŷn expat
1 year ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

I would be surprised if the number of Welsh-born voters for Plaid at the last Senedd elections were higher than the number of Welsh-born voters for the Conservatives. But more fundamentally, I don’t see the votes of people born outside Wales as less legitimate. You obviously do, but that can lead down a very dark path.

Adarynefoedd
Adarynefoedd
1 year ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

and we voted the Conservatives out at the last Council elections – only 1 left in B and R Lib Dems and Labour swept the board

Richard
Richard
1 year ago

I had an aunt who went to this shin dig last evening. I asked her this morning of her views on the event.

She was astounded at the missed opportunity to ask real questions on Wales and what was planned or being offered by each of the candidates.

A total missed opportunity was her view and it had very little Welsh content other than ‘ Drakeford bashing ‘ …

She returned to her Cyncoed home disappointed 😢

Last edited 1 year ago by Richard
Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard

Any further questions on matters to do with Wales would only have resulted in more Welsh bashing. No more anti anti Welsh Tory hustings in Wales thank you.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Over on the Guardian there is a piece on the increasing militarisation of the police and border force at the hands of a suspiciously quiet Home Sec. Given the rhetoric coming from both the candidates for Prime Minister it is time for a conversation in the Senedd about what this might mean for free speech and the right to protest in Wales…

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Yes. Maybe she’s planning to send the troops in at the next Yes Cymru march like Churchill did in Tonypandy in 1910. They like to emulate their heroes don’t they?

Kenneth Vivian
Kenneth Vivian
1 year ago

Truss wearing a Fla
ck jacket astride an English tank accuses the Celts of being ‘attention seekers!

Kenneth Vivian
Kenneth Vivian
1 year ago

Being maligned a low level Cobyn by the lower than vermin is not so bad.

One of the two witnesses
One of the two witnesses
1 year ago
Reply to  Kenneth Vivian

The only thing Mr Drakeford and Corbyn have in common is grey hair and wrinkles. Mr Drakeford is the most respected political leader in the UK for a reason (albeit a Unionist one)

Cwm Rhondda
Cwm Rhondda
1 year ago

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, there are two Tory leadership candidates seem to know what is best for Wales. They are prepared to take control and tell us what to do. In the last 100 years the Tories have never won a UK general election in Wales – they have no mandate to tell us what to do!

Please lets end this perpetual nonsense and have an independent Wales as soon as possible.

DAI Ponty
DAI Ponty
1 year ago

I would liked to have gone there and asked just one question but not being a tory would not have been allowed in my Q would have been Does England keep Wales financially because that is what you get from the Right wing London based media the drivel that we do and the Welsh tories My point is if it where true which i do not believe infact the opposite is what i believe because if it where true England would have dropped Wales like a Hot Potato the same for Scotland and Northern Ireland more so the Tory party… Read more »

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

Both Rishy Sunak & Liz Truss have no shame. Both involved in Partygate, who defended Boris Johnson’s blatant lies, now attack Wales, the Welsh, intending to criminalise supporters of independence, who make threats towards our Senedd Cymru implying they would overrule Welsh law and reimpose English rule on Wales fascism plain and simple As chancellor Rishy Sunak held the national purse strings since 2020 before jumping the sinking ship before announcing his intention to run for PM. And this wasn’t spontaneous act but planned months before, last December in fact, when he registered his cheesy campaign slogan, “Ready For Rishy”… Read more »

Ceramike
Ceramike
1 year ago

The situation is bleak regardless of which of the current candidates become PM. They have both proved totally inept as ministers in a failed Johnson government which they both supported unquestioningly until the opportunity to throw him under the bus and hopes of furthering their own money grubbing careers became a reality for them. Their supposed new policies are just a rehash of the failed approach of the current government with additional malice and spite to encourage the increasingly uncaring, self serving, greed and hatefulness exhibited by the Conservative Party and its members to vote for them. Those who previously… Read more »

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