Wednesday 13 November 2019

So disgraced Tory Chris Davies is not standing in Ynys Môn!


.A day is a long time in politics to misquote Harold Wilson .
I stay at mu keyboard this  already to accuse the Tories of contempt  for the Welsh electorate having seen the news that a former Welsh Conservative MP who was convicted of expenses irregularities and stripped of his seat has pulled out of standing as a candidate in the General Election Ynys Môn
But it seems Chris Davies, who represented Brecon & Radnorshire, admitted two charges of a false expenses claim in March after trying to split the cost of £700 worth of pictures between two office budgets by creating fake invoices has now "changed his mind".
At a by-election in August he was defeated by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds.
A Welsh Conservative source had told the BBC that Mr Davies had not yet been officially nominated “but he is the candidate” for Ynys Mon.
But late on Tuesday night, the Welsh Conservatives issued a statement saying he had changed his mind.
They said: "Chris Davies has decided to pull out of the process to select a parliamentary candidate for Ynys Mon following critical comments in the media."
In a statement, he said: "Given the reaction in the media to the idea of me being a candidate, I have decided to pull out of the selection process.
"I would not want to put my wife and family through any more distress.”
Albert Owen, the Labour MP who represented the seat since 2001, has retired, and the seat is seen as a three-way marginal between Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru
 Speaking earlier in the day, Angela Burns, Welsh Conservative AM for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, referring to events surrounding Independent AM Neil McEvoy, told BBC Wales: “I thought that today we had reached a nadir in Welsh politics.“Then I find out that Chris Davies has been imposed as a candidate in Anglesey. You couldn’t make it up!”
At the last election in 2017 Mr Owen won with 15,643 votes. The Conservative candidate came second with 10,384 votes with Plaid Cymru a close third with 10,237 votes.

So it appears that was disquiet among  some Tories about Mr Davies standing in  Ynys Môn.

But of course the intent was there and it really does seem that the Tories (Well some of them)  who foolishly allowed Mr Davies to stand in the By-election did not anticipate or probably care about the reaction  of allowing Mr Davies to stand again in a different constituency.

With Friday the 15th of December seeing the deadline for nominations , we await with anticipation just who the Tories will stand in Ynys Môn and whether it will have any impact on their vote.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

15th November?