Elections 2021: Who is Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies?

Andrew RT Davies took over as leader of the Welsh Conservatives for the second time in January

A political scandal involving alcoholic drinks in a Senedd tearoom led to a return to front-line politics for Andrew RT Davies.

Paul Davies was forced to resign as leader of the Conservatives in the Senedd after he admitted drinking on the Welsh Parliamentary estate while pubs were closed under Covid lockdown rules.

Andrew RT Davies - known by his middle initials to distinguish him from a namesake former Labour member - was in the right place at the right time to replace him, with the resignation leaving a void at the top of the party.

It was a role the farmer-turned-politician had vacated two years earlier, when others in the party had agitated for his removal.

And it marks a change in leadership style, with Mr Davies' personality almost the opposite of his publicity-shy predecessor.

The Brexiteer Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales Central is trying to steer his party to a successful Welsh election after the tumult of recent events.

He has an idiosyncratic turn of phrase - once describing himself as "19 stone of prime Welsh beef" - and over the years sought a separate course from Westminster for the Welsh Tories.

Andrew RT Davies, pictured pre-pandemic, backed Boris Johnson's leadership bid in 2019

'Born blue, and blue now'

Mr Davies, who is 52, was born in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan.

He was a breech baby, telling BBC Wales' Daniel Davies in 2016 that he was "blue when I was born and blue now".

It was his father who, after stints as a bare-knuckle boxer and working on fairs, began the family farming business.

Mr Davies got involved in many of the familiar institutions of agriculture. He was a president of the Young Farmers Club in Llantrisant; was a Welsh delegate on the National Farmers' Union council, and is a life governor of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society.

He joined the Conservative party in 1997. After a couple of campaigns as a Westminister parliamentary candidate he won election to the National Assembly for Wales, as the Senedd was then, in 2007.

Despite being involved in front-line Welsh politics ever since, Mr Davies is still involved in the family farm, based at Llantrithyd in the Vale. He is married with four children.

He first got the job as Welsh Conservative Senedd leader after 2011's assembly election, which saw his predecessor Nick Bourne lose his seat.

Andrew RT Davies defeated Monmouth's Nick Ramsay in the leadership election that followed.

His early years as leader saw him clash heads with his party colleagues at the other end of the M4.

A classic example is the row in 2014 over new income tax powers for Wales. Mr Davies thought they should be devolved with fewer restrictions, against UK government policy at the time.

Mr Davies whipped his members into opposing the so-called "lockstep" in a vote of the Senedd - and sacked those from his front bench who defied him by supporting the UK government line that all tax bands should rise or fall by the same percentage.

Come 2016, and the Welsh Tory leader went against the pro-Remain stance of then-PM David Cameron by backing Leave in the EU referendum - a decision he said left his family receiving "quite a bit of abuse". He became one of the most prominent campaigners in the successful Welsh Brexit campaign.

During his leadership the Conservatives saw their best result in Wales in 30 years at the 2015 general election, but went on to lose three seats at the 2016 assembly polls, coming third.

He stayed on, but a decision in 2017 to take the ex-Tory MP Mark Reckless into the Conservative Senedd group angered senior colleagues.

There were briefings, rows behind the scenes, and a text he was accidentally copied in on that suggested he would be ousted. In the end, Mr Davies quit of his own volition.

Paul Davies took over following a leadership election, but the former leader remained an outspoken figure and kept his high profile. He tweeted constantly and often provided more media comment than the leadership could manage.

Outside of Wales, Mr Davies might be best known for accidentally telling a party conference in 2016 that his party would make a success of "breakfast", rather than Brexit.

He took the viral social media reaction in good spirits, but he later said that his dyslexia was the reason, causing him to misread his autocue.

Mr Davies backed Boris Johnson in the most recent Tory leadership election, in 2019.

And amid a growing tendency against devolution among Welsh Tories, he has reaffirmed his support for the existence of the Cardiff institutions.

While some Conservatives had hoped Paul Davies would ease the way to a post-election deal with Plaid Cymru, much has changed.

Plaid's embrace of the independence movement makes it difficult, and Andrew RT Davies has flatly ruled out working with the party. Plaid has done the same, vice versa.

But the real question remains: if the May polls produce a result which gives the opposition a majority, could they change their minds?

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