The Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, Darren Millar MS sent out a rallying cry for Conservatism ahead of the Welsh elections next year. Read his speech in full below:
Wel prynhawn da, cynhadledd, as we say in Wales.
Good afternoon, Conference!
It is an absolute delight to follow Russell Findlay who is leading the fight for the Union and against the SNP.
In Wales, alongside the Shadow Wales team, Mims Davies and Olivia Bloomfield in Westminster we are fighting that same battle for our precious United Kingdom.
Because one thing we Conservatives know only too well that left-wing governments, whether in Scotland, Wales or Westminster, do not work.
Now friends, I am a patriotic, true Blue Welsh Conservative.
I am proud to be Welsh. There are a few others here as well, I can see.
But I am proud to be Welsh and I am proud to be British, too.
I am not ashamed of our national flags or our history.
I was born just down the road at Hope Hospital in Salford.
And because of that, I still have hope in my heart for the future of Wales and our precious United Kingdom.
I was brought up in a working-class family on the North Wales coast.
And I can tell you, my parents taught me about the value of hard work, a decent education, spending within your means, never letting things go to waste, and getting value for money.
They were Labour voters – until they saw the light!
Because eventually, they realised what everybody is starting to realise and that is that the Party that really stood for their values was our Conservative Party.
And those values hold as true today as they did when I was growing up.
Because freedom and personal responsibility matter.
And a new generation, here in the United Kingdom, is discovering and embracing these values for themselves – thanks to champions of freedom like the late Charlie Kirk.
Now, friends, I am sorry to say this but when I paid tribute to Charlie Kirk, in the Welsh Parliament just a few weeks ago, I was heckled by left-wing politicians including a Welsh Labour government Minister. Those attitudes are shameful.
And I want to say this to Erika, Charlie’s widow, we Conservatives will continue to fight for the freedoms that Charlie championed because that’s what we are about – freedom.
Friends, I am a man on a mission to fix Wales. Because, after 26 long years of Labour rule, Wales is broken.
Our NHS isn't working
Our school standards have fallen
And our economy is struggling
But instead of fixing these problems, we have a Welsh Government that is focused on all of the wrong things.
Frittering away millions on:
20 mph default speed limits
Solar powered boats for the Wampi tribe in Peru
Gender neutral tree planting projects in Uganda (whatever on Earth that means!
And a Nation of Sanctuary Plan that spends tens of millions of pounds on immigration, an issue for which the Welsh Labour Government is not even responsible.
And it includes spending a small fortune even on those who arrive in the United Kingdom illegally.
So friends, we must strengthen our borders. And that is why I unreservedly back Kemi Badenoch’s plan to leave the ECHR and deport all foreign criminals.
But, you know, perhaps the biggest example of how out of touch our political opponents in Wales actually are the £120 million pounds that they are wasting on more politicians in Cardiff Bay.
Well, let me tell you conference, Wales needs more doctors, dentists, nurses and teachers – it does not need more politicians!
And that is why the Welsh Conservatives will reverse the change. and it is not the only thing we are going to scrap because just last week, the former Labour First Minister Vaughan Gething.
Do you remember him? Yeah. We’re trying to forget about him as well. Well, he tried to vote in Senedd proceedings from his car.
Can you believe it? Yes, his car.
Now, I have got a message for Vaughan; the voters of Wales elect members of the Senedd to the Welsh Parliament – not to their sofas, not to their armchairs, and certainly not behind the wheel of their cars.
The pandemic is over and it’s time that work from home practices for members of the Senedd came to an end.
But it is not just Labour that has broken Wales.
Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrat – there’s only one in the Senedd - are equally to blame.
For quarter of a century, whenever Labour needed votes to pass another dreadful budget or an ill-thought-out-law, Plaid or the Lib Dems were there to prop them up.
And now, Welsh Labour is hatching yet another stitch-up with Plaid Cymru to give us more of the same reheated, failed, nutrition-lacking, socialist fare that Wales is sick and tire of eating. But this time with a side-order of dangerous nationalism.
And I say ‘dangerous’ because Plaid’s extremism and nationalism is just that. They want to tear Wales from the United Kingdom.
They want to draw a slate curtain across the border between England and Wales, a curtain which could end the right to live, work, study, and trade anywhere in the UK.
Their plans would cost the average Welsh working family thousands each and every single year.
So, let me be clear;
Plaid Cymru is a risk to Welsh jobs, pensions, and our economic prosperity.
But they are not the only risk at the next Senedd election. Reform is a risk too.
A personality cult with pie in the sky wish-lists with expensive things they want to do and no plan whatsoever to pay for it.
Just days ago their former Leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, admitted to taking bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament.
He’s now facing years, quite rightly, in prison.
But these stories should come as no surprise.
Why? Because Nigel Farage himself, has also cosied up to the Russians, speaking of his admiration for Vladimir Putin and even pushed the outrageous Russian propaganda lie that the West provoked the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine.
They are despicable.
So, there we have it.
Reform is a clear and present danger to our national security.
Plaid Cymru is a clear and present danger to our economic security.
The Liberal Democrats are irrelevant.
And Labour is failing Wales.
But there is hope!
Because we Welsh Conservatives have a credible plan to fix Wales.
We are ready to:
Cut income tax
Scrap rates for small businesses
Back family firms and our family farms
Eliminate wasteful spending
Invest in our roads
Protect frontline public services
Restore discipline and drive up standards in our schools
Tackle the crisis in the Welsh NHS
And defend our United Kingdom.
We will put Wales, and the people of Wales first.
So, my message to voters in Wales is this:
If you want hope, if you want change, if you want a stronger economy and stronger borders, and if you want a Wales that works, vote Welsh Conservative to Fix Wales!
Thank you.
And you can watch all the speeches from Day 1 of Party Conference 👇
