Welsh Tories 'struggling to find Senedd candidates'

Martin Shipton

The Welsh Conservatives are struggling to find candidates for next year’s Senedd election, we have been told.

Several factors are said to be responsible, including a widely-held belief that the party will fare very badly.

A disaffected former Tory local association chairman drew our attention to the situation in the new ‘super-constituency’ of Bangor Conwy Môn, which after a selection process has been left with just two candidates for the six seats available under the new electoral system.

Under the new arrangements, the number of Senedd Members will increase from 60 to 96. Wales will be split into 16 ‘super constituencies’, each of which will see six MSs elected by the ‘closed list’ method of proportional representation, under which parties will decide the order in which their candidates will be elected if sufficient votes are secured.

[mid-content-banner]

Incumbency rights

Sitting MSs have incumbency rights, which means they are automatically given the top position on their local ‘closed list’. In Bangor Conwy Môn, Janet Finch-Saunders, the sitting MS for the old seat of Aberconwy, will take the number one slot.

Only two other party members applied for the remaining five places: Mostyn Jones, who works for Ms Finch-Saunders, and Cllr Harry Saville, who works for current North Wales regional MS Sam Rowlands. In the internal party selection contest, Cllr Saville defeated Mr Jones to secure the second place on the closed list.

Mr Jones has now withdrawn his application to be a candidate, and the party is four candidates short in Bangor Conwy Môn.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

'Complete mess'

The disaffected ex Tory chairman told us: “The party in Wales is in a complete mess. It’s incredible that it can only find two candidates out of six in a constituency covering areas that had two Conservative MPs until last year. This is a cataclysmic moment for the party, but I don’t think senior officials realise just how bad things are.

“Some people are saying the party could be down to just four seats after the Senedd election. And some don’t think that would necessarily be a bad thing. They think Reform could take control and that the Senedd would descend into chaos. The Conservatives would then ride in to capitalise on the chaos.

"This, of course, is absolute fantasy. But it’s not the first time people have indulged in fantasies. The first time Andrew RT Davies was removed as leader, he was replaced by Paul Davies, a Welsh speaker from Pembrokeshire they thought would be able to secure a coalition deal with Plaid Cymru. But Plaid Cymru wouldn’t play along and now they’ve ruled out doing any kind of deal with the Conservatives. They really have blown it.”

A Conservative spokesperson would only say: “Senedd selections are currently underway and will be announced in due course.”

Sarah Atherton

Meanwhile former Wrexham Tory MP Sarah Atherton appeared to be playing a ‘come and get me’ game with Reform.

She said she wants to stand in next May's Senedd election, but couldn’t do so for the Conservatives because they ‘no longer align with her values or ideology’. She also complained about the Tories’ ‘incumbency first’ rule.

Asked by the BBC whether she had joined Reform UK, she said that she hadn’t. However, last year she said the Conservatives should ‘embrace’ Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Last month, South East Wales MS Laura Anne Jones defected to Reform UK, becoming its first member in the Senedd, following in the footsteps of former Welsh Secretary David Jones.