Tories announce raft of new policy pledges

Emily Price 

The Welsh Conservatives have announced a raft of new policy pledges but have failed to explain how they would work in practice and what benefit they would bring to Wales' economy.

On Saturday (March 29) the leader of the Welsh Tories, Darren Millar, promised to cut ministerial pay and crack down on civil servants who work from home if his party wins the Senedd election next year.

He said: "When David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010, one of his first actions was to cut ministerial pay by 10%. I want us to do the same in Wales.

"So today, I am committing that on day one of Welsh Conservative Government, I will cut the pay of all Ministers by 10%, freezing it for the duration of the Parliament.

"We will also freeze the salaries of public sector fat cats working for the Welsh Government for the duration of the parliament, and we will get more Welsh Government employees working in their offices, instead of on their sofas at home."

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Tone

It comes after the Tory Senedd group committed to creating a new Welsh Winter Fuel Allowance which would be funded by cutting down on wasteful spending.

Mr Millar said today's flurry of new policies will "set the tone" for a Tory manifesto that "fixes Wales".

The Clwyd West MS was elected the leader of the Welsh Conservative Senedd group in December after months of infighting saw seven rebel MSs topple his predecessor - Andrew RT Davies.

Announcing his party's new commitments in Llandudno, Mr Millar said: "No more tree-planting schemes in Africa when our farmers at home are struggling.

"No more taxpayer-funded foreign junkets to climate conferences for Welsh Government ministers who preach net zero.

"No more taxpayer money wasted on a loss-making, nationalised airport that does nothing to improve the lives of people in Wales.

"And no more spending on increasing the size of the Senedd — because we need more doctors, dentists, nurses and teachers, not more politicians."

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Senedd reform

Plans agreed by the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru to increase the number of MSs from 60 to 96 and change how they are elected got final approval last year.

Supporters say the expansion will strengthen opposition members’ ability to hold Welsh ministers accountable for their decisions.

The Welsh Conservatives have branded the reforms a "vanity project".

Increasing the number of MSs could cost up to £17.5m in a typical year – around 0.07% of the £24bn total annual Welsh budget.

£12m has also been earmarked to fund the infrastructure changes needed to make room for more MSs in the debating Chamber.

Nation.Cymru asked the Welsh Conservatives how their commitment to stop spending on the Senedd's expansion would work in practice.

We pointed out that money earmarked for Senedd reform would already have been spent by the time they find out if they have won the 2026 election - with work to revamp the Chamber already carried out and 96 new politicians voted in.

We asked if the Tories planned to scale the size of the Welsh parliament back to 60 MSs and if so would a Tory government pay for the Senedd's debating Chamber to be altered back to its original size.

Africa

Nation.Cymru also pointed out that around £4m had been spent on planting trees in Africa over 15 years - if this cash had been allocated to Wales' 37,000 farmers instead, it would have amounted to less than £10 per year, per farmer.

Since 2009, the Mbale Trees Growing Programme has planted 25 million trees in the heavily deforested area of eastern Uganda where a combination of climate change and excessive logging has led to fatal landslides.

The project links with the Welsh Government's 'Plant!' scheme which is administered by the charity - Size of Wales.

It sees two trees planted for every child born or adopted in Wales - one in Uganda and one in Wales.

Supporters of the scheme say trees planted in the tropics can help tackle climate change because they grow four times faster compared to the UK.

Airport

We also asked the Welsh Conservatives to expand on their pledge to stop spending tax payers money on Wales' only international airport.

The Welsh Government purchased Cardiff Airport for £52 million in 2013 amid struggling passenger numbers.

It was valued at just £15 million in 2021 following the Covid-19 pandemic - although customer numbers have since started to improve.

In August last year, the Welsh Government said it had invested a total of £179.6m in Cardiff Airport.

We asked the Tories if their government would sell the site to a private operator - or if they would close it completely.

In response to our questions about Cardiff Airport, Senedd expansion and tree planting in Africa, a Welsh Conservative spokesperson said: "We might be the first party in history to be announcing common sense cost-saving measures before expensing policies. Further details will be announced in the run up to and within the Welsh Conservative manifesto.

"We have consistently opposed Senedd expansion and funnelling unending amounts of taxpayers’ cash into Cardiff Airport. They are the wrong priorities. We support hiring more doctors, dentists, nurses and teachers instead."