Welsh Conservatives Ceidwadwyr Cymreig
Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd[1]	Darren Millar
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales	Mims Davies[2]
Chairman	Byron Davies[3]
President	Glyn Davies
Founded	1921; 104 years ago (1921)
Headquarters	Rhymney House, Parc Ty Glas,Llanishen,Cardiff CF14 5DU
Ideology	Conservatism (British) Economic liberalism British unionism
Political position	Centre-right toright-wing[4]
National affiliation	Conservatives
Colours	Blue
House of Commons	0 / 32 (Welsh seats)
Senedd	14 / 60
Councillors in Wales[5]	105 / 1,234
Councils led inWales	0 / 22
Police and crime commissioners	0 / 4
Website
www.conservatives.wales
Politics of Wales Political parties Elections Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

TheWelsh Conservative Party (Welsh:Plaid Ceidwadwyr Cymreig), commonly theWelsh Conservatives (Welsh:Ceidwadwyr Cymreig), is the branch of the United KingdomConservative Party that operates inWales. AtWestminster elections and as of 1999, it was the second-most popular political party in Wales by vote share, having obtained the second-largest share of the vote at every general election since 1931.^[6] InSenedd elections, the Conservatives are currently the second-most supported party but have at times been third. Presently, they hold 14 of the 60 seats in theSenedd and none of the 32 Welsh seats in theHouse of Commons.

This sectionis missing information about the history of the Welsh Conservatives from 2011-today. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(July 2024)

For a significant period of its electoral history, the Conservative Party in Wales was not one unified institution, instead several associations of the wider UK wide Conservative Party.^[7][8] Since the establishment ofthe franchise and expanded democratic participation in Wales, the Conservative Party has been a generally unsuccessful electoral force in elections to theUK Parliament.^[9] A great deal of their success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came fromborough constituencies which were largely enclaves of English voters within Wales.^[9]

In 1921 the Welsh Conservatives were formalised as an organisation as theWales and Monmouthshire Conservative and Unionist Council, by the merger of the three existing Welsh Provincial Associations of the party's National Union.^[7][8] For much of their history, they were dominated by the party in England, even to the extent of supplying the Welsh Secretaries of State. It was after the establishment of the Assembly in 1999, which their members largely opposed, that they became more of a Welsh-orientated party.

Their first leader, the formerWelsh Office MinisterRod Richards, showed a combative style of politics against the Labour government. However Richards resigned shortly after the Assembly had become established in response to allegations of an assault, of which he was later cleared.^[10]Nick Bourne, a law professor and former leader of the No campaign in the Welsh Assembly referendum, then became the leader, in an unopposed election. From 1999 to 2007, the party remained firmly in opposition in Wales, opposed to forming an alliance with other political parties. This changed after the indecisive2007 election, when the Welsh Conservatives were briefly involved in coalition talks on a "rainbow coalition" with theWelsh Liberal Democrats andPlaid Cymru, which collapsed after the Liberal Democrats backed out. Plaid Cymru ruled itself out of joining the Conservatives in a coalition on an ideological basis. Plaid Cymru andLabour eventually formed the government under the terms of theirOne Wales agreement.^[11] As a result of the agreement, the Conservatives, the largest opposition party, became the Official Opposition in the Welsh Assembly.

In the otherwise mainly successful Welsh Assembly elections of 2011, the long serving Welsh Conservative leader,Nicholas Bourne (2000–2011) lost his regional list seat in Mid and West Wales. This was because the party secured a significant number of constituency seats, meaning they were not assigned any regional list seats. He had been the longest serving of the party political leaders in the Welsh Assembly.

The Preseli Pembrokeshire Assembly MemberPaul Davies then became the Interim Leader whilst an election took place. The contest was betweenAndrew RT Davies (South Wales Central) andNick Ramsay (Monmouthshire). Andrew RT Davies won with some 53.1 per cent of the vote on a 49 per cent turnout of the party's Welsh membership.^{[citation needed]} Also in the post-May 2011 Welsh Assembly elections period,David Melding (South Wales Central) was elected as the Deputy Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly, the first time a Conservative had held this post.

At the2021 Senedd election, the Welsh Conservatives won eight constituency seats, takingVale of Clwyd fromWelsh Labour andBrecon and Radnorshire from theWelsh Liberal Democrats and 26.1 per cent of the constituency vote across Wales, their best constituency seats results since creation of the Senedd in 1999.

In the2022 Welsh local elections, the Conservatives lost half their councillors across Wales and lost control ofMonmouthshire County Council.^[12]

The Welsh Conservatives have suffered from historically low polling ahead of thenext Senedd election.^[13]

In theSenedd, the Welsh Conservative Group have their own leader who is often referred to as theLeader of the Welsh Conservatives, sometimes including by the leader themselves.^[14][15] TheLeader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd has been described as thede facto leader of the Conservative Party in Wales, although the UK party leadership has rejected this claim and criticised the use of the title Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, stating that the UK party leader is the only leader in Wales while the group leader only leads it in the Senedd.^[16][17] This lack of recognition has led to calls from senior figures in the Welsh party, including former leaderAndrew RT Davies^[18][19][20] and current chairLord Davies of Gower^[20] to introduce an officialdevolved leadership position for the Welsh Conservatives with constitutional recognition from the Conservative Party, like withWelsh Labour and theScottish Conservatives. This proposal has been criticised by senior figures in the UK party, including former secretary of state for WalesCheryl Gillan, who described it as "irritating" and a "distraction".^[21]

The Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd is usually elected by the party membership. The position was first introduced in November 1998, when aleadership contest was held to elect a leader for the Conservatives in theNational Assembly for Wales, now known as the Senedd, ahead of thefirst elections to the devolved legislature in 1999. The winner of that election wasRod Richards, who was elected as the first leader of the Welsh Conservative Group. He resigned in 1999 after being accused ofassault, originally for a temporary period, and appointed his deputyDavid TC Davies as acting leader. This was overruled shortly after with Nick Bourne taking Davies's place as acting leader, leading Richards to resign in protest. After Richards's resignation, Bourne was officiallyelected as leader having stood for the position unopposed. He left the role after losing his assembly seat in the2011 assembly election andAndrew RT Davies waselected to succeed him in that year. RT Davies resigned in 2018 after being informed that he did not have the confidence of all group members to continue serving in the role, withPaul Davies becoming acting leader until being officiallyelected as leader later that year. Paul Davies resigned after breaking COVID-19 restrictions in 2021 and Andrew RT Davies was re-elected as leader for a second time, being unopposed for the role. On 3 December 2024, Davies announced he would stand down from the role, after he narrowly won a confidence vote by 9 votes to 7. He said he believed his leadership to be untenable with a substantial minority in the group against him.^[22]Darren Millar succeeded Davies two days later, after facing no opposition in the2024 Welsh Conservatives leadership election.^[23]

Election	Wales		+/–
	%	Seats
1922	21.4	6 / 36
1923	21.0	4 / 36	2
1924	28.3	9 / 36	5
1929	21.9	1 / 36	8
1931	22.1	6 / 36	5
1935	23.3	6 / 36
1945	16.5	3 / 36	3
1950	21.0	3 / 36
1951	27.6	5 / 36	2
1955	26.7	5 / 36
1959	29.6	6 / 36	1
1964	27.6	6 / 36
1966	27.0	3 / 36	3
1970	27.7	7 / 36	4
Feb 1974	25.9	8 / 36	1
Oct 1974	23.9	8 / 36
1979	32.2	11 / 36	3
1983	31.0	14 / 38	3
1987	29.5	8 / 38	6
1992	28.6	6 / 38	2
1997	19.6	0 / 40	6
2001	21.0	0 / 40
2005	21.4	3 / 40	3
2010	26.1	8 / 40	5
2015	27.2	11 / 40	3
2017	33.6	8 / 40	3
2019	36.1	14 / 40	6
2024	18.2	0 / 32	14

Election	Constituency			Regional			Total seats	+/–	Government
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
1999	162,133	15.8	1 / 40	168,206	16.5	8 / 20	9 / 60		Opposition
2003	169,832	19.9	1 / 40	162,725	19.2	10 / 20	11 / 60	2	Opposition
2007	218,730	22.4	5 / 40	209,153	21.4	7 / 20	12 / 60	1	Opposition
2011	237,388	25.0	6 / 40	213,773	22.5	8 / 20	14 / 60	2	Opposition
2016	215,597	21.1	6 / 40	190,846	18.8	5 / 20	11 / 60	3	Opposition
2021	289,802	26.1	8 / 40	278,560	25.1	8 / 20	16 / 60	5	Opposition

Election	Votes	%	Councils	+/-	Seats	+/-
1993	84,909	12.5	0 / 8		32 / 502
1995	75,448	8.1	0 / 22		42 / 1,272	10
1999	99,565	10.1	0 / 22		75 / 1,270	33
2004	99,991	11.0	1 / 22	1	107 / 1,263	32
2008	148,708	15.6	2 / 22	2	165 / 1,270	19
2012*	108,365	12.8	0 / 22	2	105 / 1,235	66
2017	182,520	18.8	1 / 22	1	184 / 1,271	79
2022	145,115	15.3	0 / 22	1	111 / 1,231	86

* The 2012 figures exclude Anglesey, where the election was deferred and held in 2013, although the change in seats and votes shown is a direct comparison between the 2008 and 2012 figures in the 21 councils up for election. The 2017 figures show changes from the 2012 and 2013 elections.

Election	Wales		+/–
	%	Seats
1979	36.6	1 / 4
1984	25.4	1 / 4
1989	23.5	0 / 4	1
1994	14.6	0 / 5
1999	22.8	1 / 5	1
2004	19.4	1 / 4
2009	21.2	1 / 4
2014	17.4	1 / 4
2019	6.5	0 / 4	1

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