Welsh Conservatives consider split from main English party

WELSH Tories are considering splitting from the main party, in a move that would embarrass Boris Johnson, who took on the title of Minister for the Union when he became Prime Minister.

Senior party officials in Wales decided at a meeting this week to take steps to separate from the English Conservative Party, with one source saying that the partygate scandal was the “last straw”.

The news has alarmed Conservative MPS in England with one warning that it risked the “Balkanisation” of the Tory party, with an increasingly disaffected Scottish party distancing itself from CCHQ, and could trigger further leadership concerns about the Prime Minister.

Welsh Conservatives have been meeting in the Senedd to discuss the way forward after their disastrous local election results last month, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

There are hopes that the separation process will start to take shape through the summer, and the rebranding could be ready for the Tory Party Conference in October.

A source said the Sue Gray report into the partygate row had been “the last straw” and said: “There are cliques forming in the Senedd. The Welsh Conservatives are looking to move into a more Welsh-focused direction with the creation of a number of policies in the pipeline that will appeal more uniquely to the Welsh electorate, while maintaining a strong Unionist position.

“There will be clear blue water between both sides. We will rebrand the Welsh Conservatives and run different policies to the ones Westminster produces,” the source added.

“Welsh Conservatives want Welshfocused answers to Welsh issues that arise in the devolved competencies.”

Welsh officials are upset that Mr Johnson had not met with the party since May’s local election results when the Conservatives lost control of Monmouthshire, their only council in Wales. A source said: “The mood is very much of abandonment by Boris. Senedd members were not even invited to No10 after the election.”

With the Conservatives holding the most seats they have ever held in the Senedd, there is a thirst for a new approach.

To start the process, the Welsh Conservative group would have to agree unanimously to the rebrand.

James Evans, a Senedd member and policy director of the Welsh Conservative group, who is regarded as one of the Welsh Right’s strongest backers of the Union, aims to “stay on the Right whilst creating new policies that appeal to a unique Welsh electorate”, sources said.