Brexit Party campaigns to scrap Senedd but keep First Minister

THE Brexit Party has confirmed that while it will campaign for the Senedd to be abolished, it also wants the First Minister to be directly elected.

Its change of policy means that, unless they agree an electoral pact, three parties will be standing on an “abolish” platform in next May’s Senedd election – the Brexit Party, Ukip and the Abolish the Assembly Party.

Mark Reckless, who leads the Brexit Party’s four-strong group in the Senedd, told the BBC: “A lot of people who haven’t engaged with devolved politics now see the powers this place has, and many of those people would prefer to be governed on a UK basis rather than having things done differently in Wales just for the sake of it, as so often has been the case under Mark Drakeford.”

However, he would still see the need for a First Minister, who would be scrutinised by MPs who represent Wales at Westminster.

As yet, the Brexit Party in Wales is still discussing the details of its new approach, but a senior party source told the Western Mail: “We want to see local authorities holding much more power than they do at present. That’s what devolution should really be about.

“The Assembly has been responsible for so many disasters. They couldn’t even get the M4 relief road built when it is clearly needed.”

On the question of electing the First Minister, the source said there was a need for a great deal more scrutiny.

“The M4 relief road was a manifesto commitment, but the pledge was broken. The First Minister should be more answerable to the people.

“Welsh MPs would be able to do a better scrutiny job than at the Senedd, where things are too cosy.”

The source said under the Brexit Party’s model, the directly-elected First Minister would be responsible for public services in Wales.

“I know that [former First Minister] Carwyn Jones has described the idea as ‘elected dictatorship’, but would he say the same about [Mayor of London] Sadiq Khan? The elected First Minister would not be a dictator, but directly answerable to the people.”

Asked whether there was any prospect of an electoral pact with Ukip and the Abolish the Assembly Party, the source said: “I shouldn’t think so. There are differences between us.

“The Abolish party hasn’t given any details of what it wants except scrapping the Assembly. It hasn’t even said whether it would want a referendum.

“In the run-up to the 2016 Assembly election [when Ukip won seven seats] there were some awful fallings-out. We wouldn’t want to go through that again.

“Of course there is a risk of the vote splitting so that none of us get elected, but at least we’ll be able to stand tall and say we fought for our principles.”

Of the seven Ukip Assembly Members elected at the 2016 election, only one – Neil Hamilton – is still in the party.

Nathan Gill resigned and was replaced by Mandy Jones, who sits with three other former Ukip AMs in the Brexit Party Senedd group.

Michelle Brown sits as an Independent, while Gareth Bennett recently joined the Abolish the Assembly Party.