Welsh Tory sources have been left distinctly unimpressed with the news that Alun Cairns is the third senior Tory MP to defect from Rishi to Liz in the last week, following Chris Skidmore and Robert Buckland. The Mail got the scoop yesterday afternoon, reporting Cairns now believes Truss is best placed to save the Union:
“At the outset of the campaign, I met Rishi Sunak to discuss the future of the Union and was content with his responses. I chose to support him.
However, as the campaign has developed, the risks to our Union have become more apparent. There is a need to break out of the current orthodoxy. The future of our Union depends on it.
For this reason, I have concluded that with the positive ambition for our country and imagination she has shown, alongside her strong track record as a reformer, Liz Truss is best placed to secure our Union.”
Guido’s since been sent Cairns’ full endorsement of Rishi, only sent to Glamorgan association members, and his reasons for backing Rishi were far more numerous than those he now cites in his Mail op-ed. Cairns didn’t just meet with Rishi to “discuss the future of the Union”, however to “question his commitment to reduce taxes and making the most of Brexit”. His takeaway from the meeting wasn’t just ‘contentedness’, it was incredibly enthusiastic:
“His focus and knowledge of what should be done to achive both was enourmously reassuring and will make a significant difference to the lives of everyone. Economic competence must go hand in hand with any plans to reduce taxes”
“We have two excellent candidates that could lead our nation and we must win the next election. I believe that Rishi Sunak is in the strongest position to beat Labour and this is why I will be voting in his favour.”
A senior Welsh Conservative source told Guido “It’s clear to everybody what’s happened here. Alun has seen which way the wind is blowing and flip flopped. The guff about the Union is just a poorly constructed smoke screen for what is ultimately a selfish, careerist leap for the bandwagon.” Even more remarkably, Guido’s source is a self-professed Liz supporter. Double ouch…
The EGM vote for the Qatar APPG chairmanship – sparked following the death of Sir David Amess – turned into a Scotland vs Wales nail-biter, with former secretary of state Alun Cairns beating former secretary of state David Mundell by just one vote at 46-45. The tally took quite a long time to count up as many of the 91 MPs attempting to vote didn’t know how to update to the latest version of Zoom. Apparently leading to dozens of confused Members sending in their votes via frenzied WhatsApps and emails…
What’s surprising is just how many MPs actually showed up to the vote. Usually an APPG AGM would struggle to attract one to two dozen MPs – 91 turning up for the Qatar group’s is extraordinary. As one MP wryly observed, it’s almost as if there’s a World Cup in Qatar coming up this winter…
Andrew RT Davies resigned as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in June, saying that he had learned of a plot by remain backing party colleagues in Westminster to oust him. Davies cited a text that had accidentally been sent to him by the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns. At the time Cairns told BBC Daily Politics that:
“The text we’re talking about related to Mark Reckless and the wish in order to see him go after the local elections that were taking place at the time, not any other outcome.”
However, today the text has been revealed and clearly references the former leader of the Welsh Conservatives Nick Bourne, who now sits in the House of Lords. Mark Reckless (who had no involvement in Welsh politics before being elected as an Assembly Member in 2016) has released a statement confirming that he has “never had any dealings with Nick Bourne.”
This makes it hard for Cairns to go on claiming that the text was about ousting Reckless. If he has lied he would have to resign. Looks like Cairns has some serious questions to answer…
It was always going to be a tall order for the pint-sized Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns to be photographed next to the statuesque Chris Grayling. The tippy toes made up the difference. Turns out Cairns is a regular on pointe:
Bless.
CCHQ is embroiled in a number of nasty spats with Tory associations after imposing female candidates on seats across Wales. The Tories do not have a single female Welsh MP, something party chairman Patrick McLoughlin and Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns are determined to change. In Bridgend, CCHQ has imposed Karen Robson on the association against its will. Robson is not from the local area (she moved to Wales after university and last ran for the Tories 20 miles away in Cardiff). This has infuriated local members, who passed a vote to reject the carpetbagger and choose a local candidate instead. One member says:
“The majority of members are up in arms as this is an outrage and tearing our Association apart in a target seat. It is hardly an example of strong and stable leadership in the national interest. This is immoral and treats all of us hard working volunteers who have been here through thick and thin with contempt.”
CCHQ has ignored them and pressed ahead with Robson as the candidate, in response some Bridgend Tory councillors are threatening to go independent…
The Tories have also imposed female candidates on associations in both Newport West and East. In Newport West, European Parliament bag-carrier Angela Jones-Evans has been imposed at the expense of the 2015 candidate and long-serving local member Nic Webb. In Newport East, CCHQ wants Natasha Asghar, the daughter of the local Tory assembly member. These associations are upset with Cairns, McLoughlin and CCHQ. Behind closed doors Cairns has insisted there has to be at least one female MP returned in Wales this election and imposing female candidates is the only way to guarantee that. As Guido’s (male) Welsh mole says: “We do need to have a female MP, but CCHQ has gone about this in an awful fashion…”
Welsh Secretary @AlunCairns asked about suggestions from a minister in his dept that his “gut feeling” is Scotland will leave the UK #Peston pic.twitter.com/rzDGq6NJmn
— Peston on Sunday (@pestononsunday) March 19, 2017
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns did not offer any defence of his minister Guto Bebb’s comments on Scotland, comically just saying a string of incomprehensible words. Theresa May will need a better line that that when she visits Wales tomorrow…
