Welsh elections 2022: Huge challenge for Tories, says Welsh deputy chair

Conservatives face a "huge challenge" to restore trust with voters, a leading Welsh Tory has said.

Tomos Davies, a Welsh Conservative deputy chairman and Monmouthshire councillor said Wales' local elections were "disastrous" for his party.

The Conservatives lost control of Monmouthshire council and lost more than 80 councillors across Wales.

Labour was the big winner, Plaid gained control of three councils and the Lib Dems became the largest group in Powys.

The Greens are celebrating securing the most seats they have ever had in Wales.

Mr Davies, newly elected as a councillor, told BBC Wales anger over parties held in Downing Street during lockdown "did come up on the doorstep from time to time".

"Clearly, there's a huge challenge on our hands as a party to restore that trust with the Welsh and British electorate."

He said he had "every faith" in the leadership of Boris Johnson, but "Boris, as well as the whole government and indeed the Welsh Conservative Party, needs to go that extra step and really show that we understand the pain, the anger that many voters are experiencing," as cost of living pressures continue to mount.

Mr Davies added that the prime minister should use Tuesday's Queen's Speech, where the UK government outlines its policy agenda for the next year, to be "bold and ambitious" so that he can "restore that trust with the electorate".

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, who sits in Mr Johnson's cabinet, said voters have given the Conservatives "a pretty firm talking to" in Wales.

Mr Hart said Boris Johnson would agree that it is "an instruction we can do better than this".

"I think if you were talking to Boris yourself - he'd be saying pretty well exactly that: 'Okay, we've been given a pretty firm talking to by voters in Wales today'.

"It's tantamount to a severe ticking off and an instruction we can do better than this."

Peter Fox, the Conservative Member of the Senedd for Monmouth, said the vote in the Monmouthshire election showed "democracy has spoken and you have to move on".

"It was difficult after controlling that council for so long to see us losing seven seats.

"And to no longer be the biggest party in Monmouthshire was a big blow," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

Labour made gains and won control of Blaenau Gwent and Bridgend but they suffered a set-back in Neath Port Talbot which fell to no overall control.

Labour's shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens said there would "obviously be a bit of a post-mortem there".

"As I understand it, there were some particular sort of hyper-local issues which meant that we lost some seats to independent candidates, and clearly we'll be looking at that," she told the programme.

Plans, paused last summer, to close three English-medium primary schools and create a new "super school" in the Swansea valley are being blamed for Labour's disappointment there.

Former Wrexham Labour MP Ian Lucas said the party performed "reasonably well" in the local elections "but they need to be doing better".

"I think the enthusiasm that needs to be there to win the next general election, on the doorstep, I don't think is there, but I think it can be," he told Times Radio on Saturday.

He advised Labour to be "realistic about assessing that and begin to focus on engaging much more positively with the electorate".

The party needs to be "painting a picture of what the next Labour government is going to look like and how they're going to actually affect and drive forward people's individual lives and make their lives better", he said.

"We're a very fractured society at the minute and I think that creating a sense of unity within the country is an aim that we really need to focus on heavily."

Plaid Cymru took a firmer grip on councils which they already led, gaining majorities in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Anglesey, and holding Gwynedd.

The party, however, lost a small number of seats overall.

Vale of Glamorgan's final declaration came late on Friday night after a recount in one ward, although Labour had already replaced the Conservatives as the largest party there.

Labour now has 25 seats, three seats short of a majority, with the Conservatives having 13 councillors and Plaid Cymru eight.

Independents and the Llantwit Independents secured four seats each, meaning the council remains under no overall control.

Labour says it will now try to work with others, probably independent councillors, to form the next administration.

Labour remains the largest group on Flintshire council but with just one more seat than the independents.

It was the last local authority in Wales to declare its final results.

Labour took both seats in Buckley Bistre West, one of two wards recounted on Saturday morning.

Independents took both seats in the other ward, Connah's Quay South.

It means that Labour have 31 seats and the independents 30, both short of a majority control of the 67-seat county hall and seeking to form an administration.

Labour councillor Sean Bibby, who represents Shotton West, told BBC Wales: "In terms of seats, it's very tight between us and the independents, so we'll see what happens next."

Labour faced a strong challenge in the Connah's Quay area where independents, led by former Labour councillor Bernie Attridge, made big gains.

Mr Attridge said he believes an independent administration can be formed through discussions with the four Liberal Democrats and two Conservative members elected.

"I'm confident that over the weekend we'll be able to sort a deal out so that an independent administration can run county hall," he said, adding that people are "sick of one party rule".

Meanwhile, Green Party activists have been celebrating winning eight council seats across Wales.

In the previous poll, in 2017, they managed to get just one councillor elected, in Powys, who later defected to Plaid Cymru.

The Greens now have two councillors in Denbighshire and one elected member in Conwy, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Monmouthshire, Powys and Swansea.