Darren Millar on course to lead Welsh Tories

Darren Millar has been an MS since 2007

Senior Welsh Conservative Darren Millar is on course to become the next leader of the party in the Senedd.

With no potential rival in sight, the chief whip has the public support of 13 of his party colleagues, including outgoing leader Andrew RT Davies.

Other potential rivals - Samuel Kurtz, Natasha Asghar, James Evans and Tom Giffard - have ruled themselves out.

Davies resigned on Tuesday after he narrowly won a confidence vote of the Conservative Senedd group - nine for and seven against - saying it was untenable for him to carry on.

It followed months of pressure over the party's direction in Wales.

The outgoing Welsh Conservative leader said there was "plotting" within the party's Senedd group to oust him as long ago as April.

With only 16 Conservatives in the Senedd there are not enough endorsements left to support a second candidate - with hopefuls requiring three others to back them.

Nominations close at 1700 GMT on Thursday. If there is only one candidate they will become leader of Welsh Conservative Senedd leader immediately.

Millar would be the third leader to take control of a Welsh party in the Senedd without an election of party members - following Eluned Morgan for Labour and Rhun ap Iorwerth for Plaid Cymru.

First elected to be a Member of the Senedd, then called the National Assembly, in 2007, Millar has had a significant role in the Welsh Conservatives for some time.

In a sense, he made a name for himself from day one, being responsible for Labour's biggest casualty of the night in his first election.

He defeated Alun Pugh, culture minister at the time, in Clwyd West, the seat Millar still holds today.

As of Wednesday evening Millar's backers include outgoing leader Andrew RT Davies, former leader Paul Davies, Janet Finch-Saunders, Peter Fox and Russell George.

Laura Anne Jones, Samuel Kurtz, Tom Giffard, James Evans, Altaf Hussain, Joel James and Gareth Davies also support Millar.

Millar's supporters include some of the seven Senedd members who voted against Davies on Tuesday.

They included Kurtz, who backed Millar on social network X: "Darren will help inspire them with the possibilities of a brighter, more prosperous future under the Welsh Conservatives."

"I have all the faith in the world in Darren. He is incredibly capable and able. He’s ticked all the boxes in terms of getting the support he needs," she said.

At least three endorsements from Tory Senedd members, not including the candidate, are needed to run to be leader.

Giffard said he had been approached to stand but he would back Millar instead, who he said was a "seasoned campaigner" and a "really strong performer in the media".

He denied there were "big splits" in the group.

"None of this is personal. Everyone likes Andrew regardless of what side of the argument that they were on.

"What's really important now is that we unite as a party."

Andrew RT Davies says his opponents "would have picked up on anything to force a vote"

Davies told Wednesday's Radio Wales Breakfast: "Deep down I think there were plans afoot as far back as April, because I was made aware of a plan to try and open the leadership question in April of this year.

"They would have picked up on anything to force a vote, and that's the right in a party to do that, because we live in a democracy, but I don't believe that the Conservative cause was helped by their plotting and their scheming."

MSs had raised their concerns, and according to Davies told him to quit, at a meeting last week.

He said the MSs had made three criticisms - on his messaging, "that I was indifferent to the job" and the recent attempt by his senior advisor to become Welsh Conservative chairman.

Nine Tory Senedd members, including Davies himself, backed him in the confidence vote, while seven were against him.

He told the programme there was a need to get the Welsh Conservatives "into the best possible place" to challenge the Welsh Labour government at the 2026 Senedd election and "make that change that Wales desperately needs"

"That was not going to be achieved with a divided group in the Senedd.

"The best way to unite the group, in my mind, was to tender my resignation despite winning the vote of confidence and ultimately allowing a new leader the best opportunity", he added.

Also on the programme, Millar praised Davies for leading the Conservatives in Cardiff Bay "with distinction for well over a decade".

He said he wanted build on his legacy and "get back to holding the Welsh government to account - that has to be our focus".

He was asked whether he would like there to be a leadership contest, rather than a "coronation" in which he would take the job unopposed, he said he would be "very happy to take on an opponent".

'Things happened that we were uncomfortable with'

Peter Fox, one of the Conservatives to oppose Andrew RT Davies in the vote on Tuesday, said: “Andrew is a really likeable guy, and he’s worked extremely hard for the party."

But the MS for Monmouth added: "There was a range of things that happened over recent months that many of us were starting to feel uncomfortable with.

“By association, and me personally, I felt it was affecting my own credibility and reputation and I couldn’t continue with that. So it was with a heavy heart that any of us had to share our views as we did.”

He said the story on devolution – where Andrew RT Davies was shown on social media asking constituents if they wanted to abolish the Senedd – “was something many of us couldn’t stand”.

“There isn’t a strategy, there’s not a policy position on these things, but we were by association, aligned with them, and that couldn’t go on.”

He denied the Tory group was split despite the leadership vote, and denied a plot since April. He said concerns started brewing just after the general election.

“Darren is an absolutely excellent MS, and I'm sure everybody will get behind him if he's successful,” he added.

A Welsh Conservative source said in response: "Andrew’s strategy was the only game in town.

"The refusal of [Fox] and his fellow liberals to change our party is the reason it is in such a perilous state.”:

Analysis

BBC Wales political correspondent Daniel Davies

After a year of political upheaval, have the Welsh Conservatives ended up in the same place as Welsh Labour?

Both saw leaders brought down by internal critics in 2024.

But it’s not their rivals who inherit the crown.

Instead, both parties have anointed someone they hope to unite behind: Eluned Morgan and - probably - Darren Millar.

The two have something else in common - they lead parties facing the prospect of very difficult Senedd elections in 2026.