Tory leaders won’t rule out Senedd deals with Plaid and Reform

UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and her Senedd leader Darren Millar have declined to rule out deals with Plaid Cymru and Reform after next year’s election in Wales.

On current projections, it is likely politicians of different parties will need to work together to form the next Welsh government, with a majority difficult to obtain.

On the first day of his party’s Welsh conference in Llangollen, Senedd Tory leader Darren Millar has said his party was willing to work with “anybody” to get Labour out of power.

Kemi Badenoch, who has ruled out working Reform at a UK level, admitted it was a “reality” that post-election talks may need to happen but said the conversation was a “distraction”.

The Conservatives have been polling in fourth place behind Labour, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru ahead of the election in Wales next May and lost all their Welsh MPs at the last general election.

Millar described his party, which has 16 seats in the Welsh Parliament, as a “government in waiting” while Badenoch called on members to “fight back” against Plaid Cymru and Reform.

It is unlikely Labour would ever work with the Conservatives or Reform. Plaid Cymru has ruled out working with Reform but not the Tories or Labour.

Deals with either Plaid Cymru or Reform are likely to be controversial internally in the Conservatives, especially given Plaid’s pro-Welsh independence stance.

On BBC Radio Wales Breakfast Millar said: “I’m prepared to work with anybody to get rid of this failing Labour government.

Asked to clarify if that was his answer to working with Reform, he repeated the point: “I will work with anybody to get rid of this dreadful Welsh Labour government. I’ll say no more than that.”

Pushed on what his position was on working with Plaid Cymru, he made the same comment.

In an interview with BBC Wales, Badenoch was asked if she wanted to fight Plaid Cymru and Reform or do a deal with them.

She said: “We’re not here to talk about deals, we’re here to talk about what we are going to do to fix Wales.

“Whenever politicians start talking about who they are going to do deals with or how they are going to get back into government, you can see they are not really thinking about what is going to deliver for the people of this country.

“And that’s why Darren and I are 100% focused on Conservatives winning as many seats as possible.”

Asked again about deals with Reform or Plaid, Badenoch admitted it was a “reality” that conversations might take place “but right now, that’s not where we are”.

She added: “I’m very clear I’m not having this conversation because its a distraction.”

Nigel Farage has said that Reform UK would be willing to work with any other party to form a government in Wales.

In her speech to conference, Badenoch said Plaid Cymru and Reform were playing the “politics of identity”.

She said Labour had “always been able to blame someone else” in Wales and that Plaid Cymru and Reform were “benefiting” now Labour was in power in Westminster.

“It’s the politics of identity they are playing and we need to fight back. Reform is not the answer, Labour is not the answer.

“All these other parties are a flavour of the same thing. They tell people what they think they want to hear because they’re trying to help themselves.”

Badenoch said last year’s election result was “devastating” and the local elections in England showed the party was “not yet out of the woods”.

She said Wales was “where our fightback begins”.

In her speech she said it was “good to be back in Wales” before saying it had been “fantastic meeting so many people” including “MSPs”.

Wales does not have any MSPs – politicians from Cardiff Bay are called Members of the Senedd (MSs).

She later told BBC Wales it was a “slip of the tongue”.

Earlier, Millar told the conference that last year’s general election defeat was “very bruising” and it was “clear that we have got a lot of work to do to rebuild trust”.

He said his party was “the only credible alternative to this clapped out, lacklustre Labour government that has run this country into the ground, has run out of ideas and has run out of steam”.

He said “a bad opinion poll” did not discourage him, but “motivates me. It makes me work harder”.

He said the Tories were “pro-freedom, pro-choice, pro-personal responsibility”.

On Friday morning the party launched a number of policies including a promise to bring down waits for NHS treatment to no more than a year, and reinstating home economics to schools.

Millar told Radio Wales Breakfast that the policies showed the Tories were “a government in waiting”.

The conference follows a row among party grassroots members, who say Tories who dislike devolution are effectively barred from being candidates for the next Senedd election.

By Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales political editor

Kemi Badenoch did not want to talk about post election deals, but did not rule them out either.

Both she and Darren Millar appear to accept that with the polls looking ominous, this is the party’s best hope of being involved in government in Cardiff Bay.

But while Millar was talking of the potential for deals as soon as he took over last December, Badenoch’s reticence suggests she is aware of the wider ramifications.

She has already ruled out a pact with Reform at Westminster level – they potentially represent an existential threat to the Tories, and a deal with Plaid Cymru might be a tough sell to members of the Conservative and Unionist Party.

Her choice of language is interesting too: Senedd politicians have accepted deals as a fact of political life for the past quarter of a century.

For a Westminster politician they are seen as a “stitch-up”.