Welsh Government minister slams Tory leader for ‘nonsense’ halal meat claims amid racist riots
Emily Price
A Welsh Government minister has called out the most senior Tory in Wales for posting “nonsense” about halal meat during a week of rioting by far-right thugs.
Minister for Social Care Dawn Bowden hit out at Andrew RT Davies on Monday (August 5) over letters he sent to Welsh councils about halal meat in schools.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Bowden said: “Andrew, seriously? This is absolute nonsense! Don’t you think, in the current climate, as Leader of the Opposition in the Senedd, you have a responsibility to try and lower the temperature a little?”
Mr Davies argues it’s his job to take forward issues of “national significance”.
Ms Bowden said: “He knows exactly what he is doing. No-one is forcing children to do anything, it’s a dietary option, nothing more.”
Last week, Mr Davies claimed his constituents had complained to him about Cowbridge School in the Vale of Glamorgan, alleging that it was only providing halal lunches for pupils.
Before the council were able to respond, the Welsh Tory leader published his letter to X where it racked up over 1.7m views and 10,000 likes.
The post went viral after being shared by British anti-Islam campaigner, Tommy Robinson.
Cowbridge School says his allegations about its lunch options are incorrect.
Concerns
The Tory leader has now sent letters to all of Wales’ councils with queries about whether halal meat is being served to children as a “default option”.
Responding to Ms Bowden on X, Mr Davies said: “This is an unhelpful statement from a Welsh Labour minister and I hope she’ll consider retracting.
“These were legitimate concerns raised by decent, law-abiding constituents, all of whom are horrified by lawlessness on our streets and want to see those guilty of violence severely punished. We must not conflate the two.
“Mainstream politicians have a responsibility to engage with these issues and take concerns forward.
“Our failure to do so leaves the field clear for extremists, who will exploit the situation for their own ends.”
Anti-Islam
Over the weekend, Nation.Cymru carried out an investigation of the comments sections beneath Mr Davies’ Facebook posts about his halal meat concerns.
We found several highly offensive anti-Islam comments.
On person posted: “100% Andrew halal should be banned full stop in the UK. This is Christian country not Pakistan”.
Another posted: “Well done Andrew, If/when we are an Islamic state we will have no choice but to eat halal meat but until that day halal needs to stay out of our society.”
The Senedd Tory Shadow Cabinet currently has two Muslim members, Altaf Hussain and Natasha Asghar – the first minority ethnic woman to be appointed to the Senedd.
We asked Ms Asghar what she felt about the content being posted by the Tory leader over the past week and if she was aware of the Islamaphobic comments left on his Facebook page.
She did not wish to provide a comment at this time.
Tory sources in both London and Wales told Nation.Cymru there are concerns about the way the Welsh Conservatives have used on social media during a week that saw violent rioting across England following the murder of three girls in Southport.
Cardiff born Axel Rudakubana, 17, was arrested for the attack – but rumours spread online that he was an asylum seeker who travelled to the UK on a small boat.
False rumour
On Friday Nation.Cymru revealed how a Tory town councillor had used a Welsh Conservative group chat overseen by Tory MS Janet Finch Saunders to spread a false rumour about the tragic Southport dance class murders.
Cllr Phillip Ashe claimed the subsequent riot in the Merseyside town broke out because “a Muslim man with a balaclava and a knife” was arrested yards from where locals held a vigil for the three young children.
Mr Ashe told Nation.Cymru he plans to step down adding that he sent the message because the man in the picture who was arrested “looked like a Muslim”.
But the man was in fact not Muslim – he was named by Merseyside police as Jordan Davies, a local who was charged with possession of a knife minutes before a mob launched a night of violence.
Tory MS Janet Finch-Saunders has since deleted the group chat.
A check of Cllr Ashe’s social media revealed he had recently been sharing Tommy Robinson content, including the banned documentary “Silenced” which repeats false claims about a Syrian refugee.
Mr Ashe apologised for the posts saying he was “ashamed” of himself.
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales was also forced to apologise at the weekend after he was reprimanded by the Tory Chief Whip for suggesting the violence across parts of England is “politically justified”.
Lord Byron Davies of Gower said he “utterly condemns” the violence but added that he stands by his criticism of Labour’s “totally negative” approach to immigration and organised crime.
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The recent riots are as a direct result of Tory and Farage rhetoric over years. The vast majority of it pure lies. This Halal rubbish is just one example. These politicians need to take a long hard look in the mirror – words have consequences.
What a gammon!
It was my decision to introduce halal food in Cardiff schools as of right when asked for (Kosher also). Ironically, Labour & the Libs had voted against that. Labour has since phased it out in some schools. I recall a former senior Labour figure telling me there was no appetite for halal; the pun was intended and the comrades had a good laugh about it.
Don’t you feel a twinge of responsibiliry, Andrew RT Davies, at the way you deliberately stoke anti-Islamic thuggery with your unsubtle insinuations – no, outright lies! – about halal meals being ‘forced’ on Cowbridge School pupils? For shame on you, you disgrace to Toryism
The first letter, he trumpeted out on twitter, got interaction with yaxley Lennon, so was the second letter cos he thought he would get another pat on the head from tommy 10 names. There is no reason why he needed to air this on twitter, it could have all been done through the office and awaited the replies. Well, there is one reason I can think of and this is from the bloke that trumpeted Braverman, willing to leave the ECHR, banging on about stopping the boats, that leaves one option. And with the nation in the state it is… Read more »
More Islamophobia by Andrew RT Davies. It’s because of him and his extremophile Tory party who with Brexit demonised not only the EU , asylum seekers & Muslims, but have now sown the very social media seeds that has emboldened those with fascist views to start a race war and lynching in our streets. Pathetic little man.
It’s not a good time to raise this subject which had gone quiet. However Hilal and kosher meat are not acceptable to non Jews and non Moslems for various reasons. It is also not lawful to sell or serve falsely identified food to anyone as far as I am aware. The main objections are the method of slaughter and the religious part of it which offends some people.
For quite a few of our politicians, what matters for them these days is the ‘likes’ which they receive on ‘X’. Whether or not what they’ve asserted is actual and factual is altogether secondary.
And of course the ultimate compliment, accorded to the very very few, is an approving response from Mr Musk.
Lets hope they are wiped out, they have it seems deliberately stopped a democratic vote for the Welsh electorate to choose a party/leader if they had not backed Saint Eluned as leader…..
Now he is defending Tice. Are the Welsh cons aware that they have a reform leader?
Ah, he is trying to save face again on Musks hell site this morning. I am not sure he has the ability to process complex issues. Tub thumping is all he knows.
Top tip ARTD, reform is the party you are looking for.
People have go bags in case the racists start near them (take that in bud, they are ready to flee racists), people are scared to go to work, people are burning libraries, they are trying to kill people in hotels. Which bit of the news are you having problems with (try ignoring gbeebies for a while)
Your readers might be interested to know exactly what Halal Meat is?
The conditions for Halal slaughter can be summarised as follows:
IMHO without first stunning the animal its a cruel and totally unnecessary form of slaughter, when far more humane means are now available.
This isn’t the issue. The problem is the Tory leader on the Senedd decided to air a racially contentious issue on a platform known to spread race hate and lies that part led to and during racist riots and who’s platform owner has actively meddled in the riots. That is the problem. And I would expect constituency work to be carried out quietly not aired on hate platforms. I would expect him to write to the Labour ministers for answers. But no, he went public at the worst time possible. What work will he announce next? Who will go next… Read more »
“The animal must be alive at the time of slaughter.” As opposed to being dead at the time of slaughter? People come over all squeamish about the seconds an animal experiences at slaughter and stick their heads in the sand when it comes to how animals are treated throughout their lives before being slaughtered. ” without first stunning the animal its a cruel and totally unnecessary form of slaughter,” Vast numbers of animals across the world including western Europe are killed every day by people who are Christians and are of Christian heritage. The ways of slaughtering are varied and are often… Read more »