Welsh Tory leader quits following Covid-19 related alcohol breach

Saturday, 23 January 2021 3:55 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 23 January 2021 3:55 PM ]

Paul Davies has been forced to quit his role as Tory leader in Wales just as the party was getting ready to mobilize its resources for the parliamentary election in May

In a dramatic development in Welsh politics, the Conservative Party leader in the Welsh Senedd (Parliament), Paul Davies, has been forced to step down after he breached a Covid-19 related pub alcohol ban.

Davies stepped down alongside his colleague, Darren Millar, a Tory member of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), barely four days after pubs across Wales were banned from serving alcohol on their premises.

On stepping down, Davies admitted his actions had “damaged the trust and respect I have built up over 14 years in the Welsh Parliament”.

“For the sake of my party, my health and my own conscience, I simply cannot continue in post”, Davies added.

The dramatic turn of events is a big blow to the Tory party in Wales especially as it prepares to fight May’s scheduled election for the Welsh Parliament, known locally as the Senedd Cymru.

Welsh nationalist groups, led by Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) are expected to perform well in the election, thus adding to the Tories’ woes in Wales.

Resurgent Welsh nationalists call for radical change to ‘political landscape’

A pro-independence campaign group is building up political and ideological momentum ahead of the Welsh parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2021.

Not surprisingly, Plaid Cymru has welcomed Davis’ departure, not least because it believes recent events have intensified the chaos among both the Welsh Tory leadership and the party’s rank and file.

Reacting to Davis’ departure, Helen Mary Jones, who is a Member of the Senedd (MS) for Mid and West Wales, said: "Even when the Tory Senedd group was giving its unanimous support to the leader and chief whip, it was obvious to everyone else that their positions were untenable”.

"Everyone will be asking what took them [the Welsh Tories] so long. No amount of rearranging the deckchairs will make a chaotic and increasingly right wing Tory party fit to govern Wales", Jones added.

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