‘We’re the party of change’ vows Welsh Conservatives leader after 2024 wipeout

Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies has claimed his is the party of change, not Labour.

Being left with no House of Commons seats at the general election was a “kick in the guts”, Mr Davies told the PA news agency, but he said the Conservatives “can make the difference in 2026” at the next Senedd poll in Wales.

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

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.

“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.”

“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”.

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.”