Huw Davies is currently a suspended member of the Conservative Party, until which time he was the Deputy Chairman of the Monmouthshire Conservatives. 

Something very disturbing is going on inside the Welsh Conservatives. A weird pattern of events has occurred in the recent months; they are so bizarre and unusual that I cannot put my finger on what is going on. All I can say is that it is not behaviour you would see from a party which is doing well.

Firstly, a mere few days before the Welsh Conservative conference was to be held in Llangollen, I received an email from CCHQ informing me that my membership had been suspended.

No reason had been given, but it was not at all a big surprise. I had been informed by numerous channels that the Senedd leadership had been after me for months. This is thanks to the fact that I have critical of Darren Millar and the way he is leading the party here in Wales.

As regular readers of ConHome may remember, I have written extensively on the stitch up selection rules for incumbent Members of the Senedd, alongside criticising Millar’s openness to working with the separatists, Plaid Cymru.

I had first been warned to shut up about the Plaid issue and threatened with suspension by David TC Davies (Millar’s Chief of Staff). Back in December of last year, I received a phone call from him saying as much and a few days afterwards he wouldn’t stop pestering me at a Christmas fundraiser over it. This is after I had told him numerous times that I would not stop raising my concerns until any deals with Plaid had been ruled out.

I was quite appalled by his behaviour to be frank; I spent an incredible amount of time (all unpaid) to get David re-elected during the general election, and my payment was an attempt to patronise and belittle me into submission.

In a show of defiance, I still went to Llangollen. Even though I couldn’t enter the conference, I wanted to show that I had done nothing wrong other than have the audacity to have an opinion.

Many have asked me whether I have had to have taken such a critical stance of Millar, and did I have to be so public about it. My response to that is that we have very little time left to save the Conservative Party, and we cannot afford to make mistakes. Therefore, I feel I had a moral duty to warn that what was happening would further plunge them into the abyss.

Simply put, Millar’s dictatorial handling of the issue of devolution is alienating the very few voters we have left, the overwhelming majority of whom support abolishing the Senedd.

As well as this, reports are that devosceptic candidates have been removed from the Senedd candidates list for supporting scrapping devolution. Cardiff councillor, Joel Williams, alleges that he had been notified of his inability to stand next year because of his opinions. This is yet another example of a weak leadership taking drastic measures to silence people who passionately believe in the United Kingdom.

Those candidates who have yet to be sent to a metaphorical gulag by Millar have been forced to sign a document saying that they would subscribe to all party policies. Perfectly normal, you might think – but it is abundantly clear that this is aimed to silence devosceptics. When this was put to Millar, he couldn’t even deny it!

A week after I had received my suspension even more troubling news broke. Without any reason and out of the blue, the entire officer and executive team of the North West Wales Conservative Federation had been removed and placed into ‘special measures’.

There had been a great amount of shock about this, but those I have spoken to weren’t entirely surprised.

This federation had had internal issues regarding the incumbency rights given to Aberconwy Senedd member, Janet Finch Saunders. A huge bulk of the organisation, mostly from Anglesey, was angry that they had been disenfranchised during the process and forced to accept a candidate they didn’t want.

As such, there had been a lack of enthusiasm to campaign, and the ‘special measures’ status bestowed upon them seems to be linked to that. There have also been suggestions that it may be linked to concerns that the federation wouldn’t release funds to support the Senedd campaign – membership democracy overturned to suit an ever-panicked Senedd group.

As for my suspension, I intend to contest it and expose the dictatorial nature of the Senedd leadership, who clearly cannot lead without taking some inspiration from Stalin.

Just to add salt to wound, one Senedd member’s WhatsApp messages had been leaked in which they had some pretty harsh things about myself. Yet they are still an approved candidate for the Senedd election and addressed conference – double standards or what?

I cannot believe that, less that year out to the Senedd election, the leadership in Wales has declared a full-scale war on the grassroots. It feels like the tragedy of dying days of the previous Conservative government has been written into a Shakespearean psychodrama for everyone to watch play out again on a Welsh stage.

I joked once that the Welsh Conservatives could get zero seats in the next Senedd election. Now, the possibility of it is getting higher and higher.

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