The second-largest party in the Senedd following the 2021 election, the Welsh Conservatives have been a major player within the Senedd since devolution began.

However if opinion polls are to be believed they could be facing a near wipe-out in the upcoming Senedd election on May 7th, with some polls predicting them winning just one seat.

Nevertheless the Welsh Conservatives remain positive about their chances and released their manifesto, titled ‘Fix Wales, Our Plan To Get Wales Working’ in March.

They were first of all the main political parties to release their manifesto.

Unlike the other parties, the Welsh Conservatives have not outlined five key pledges or priorities at the beginning of their manifesto.

However, a letter from party leader Darren Millar opens the manifesto, focusing predominantly on growing the economy; the NHS; education and young people; reversing 20mph speed limits; and cutting taxes.

As such, these will be taken as the core priorities for the Welsh Conservatives in the upcoming election.

The Economy

Presenting their “economic growth plan for Wales”, the Welsh Conservatives promises to work to deliver employment, take advantage of new technology, and encourage investment across Wales.

In order to “get Wales working”, the party proposes scrapping business rates for small firms, pubs, and post offices; piloting business rate-free periods for new retail businesses opening shops on Welsh high streets; and making public procurement contracts more accessible to small businesses.

The party focuses heavily on increasing investment in Wales, pledging to re-establish a Welsh Development Agency to “attract inward investment, promote business growth, and support job creation.”

The Tories say they will develop growth strategies for, energy, healthcare, defense, aerospace, agriculture, tourism, financial services, and the creative industries.

Cut Taxes

Cutting taxes also appears to be a priority for the Welsh Conservatives in government.

They pledge to cut the basic rate of income tax by 1p - a move the party says will save the “average working family” £450 per year.

Analysis undertaken by BBC Verify found that a 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax would save the average individual £220 in the first year, or around £450 for a family with two working adults - close to the number provided in the Welsh Conservative manifesto.

However, BBC Verify also notes a 1p cut in Welsh income tax rates would result in a loss of more than £300 million for the Welsh Government, and the UK Government will not make up this loss in its block grant for Wales.

It suggests that changing the basic rate of income tax in Wales by 1p would lower the estimated Welsh Government revenue from income tax from £3.13 billion to £2.82 billion.

The party also proposes to cap council tax increases at 5% and require local referendums for larger rises.

The NHS

Changes to the Welsh NHS feature heavily in the Conservative manifesto, with pledges ranging from ways to support NHS staff to improving patient outcomes and access to healthcare.

The Welsh Conservatives will declare a “health emergency” and immediately reopen closed wards in community hospitals across Wales to enable rehabilitation for patients closer to home.

They propose upping spending on health and social care in real terms in each year of the next Senedd term, as well as establishing an “NHS Wales Efficiency Taskforce” to ensure the NHS delivers value for money.

To improve access to healthcare, the Conservatives plan to establish a “21st Century Hospitals Fund” to build new hospitals and modernise the country’s hospital and primary care estate.

Alongside this, the party proposes to build four new community hospitals with minor injuries units, including a hospital in Rhyl with 30 beds.

Also, the party promises to work to better support NHS staff, including establishing an NHS Wales reserves service to create a bank of trained and vetted volunteer staff to assist the NHS in times of crisis.

The Welsh Conservatives also say they will implement, in full, the recommendations of the Independent Pay Review Panel on NHS pay in Wales.

Education and Young People

Pledging to restore “discipline and academic rigour” to schools, the Welsh Conservatives say they will be “equipping young people with the skills they need to compete in the global jobs market.”

The party aims to create school covenants between parents, teachers, and pupils to “restore discipline and respect” and “improve school attendance.”

They promise to improve standards in Welsh schools by extending unannounced school inspections; scrapping the Welsh Baccalaureate; and reintroducing Standardised Assessment Tests (SATs) in primary schools to measure pupil and school performance.

The enhancement of parental rights and choice is also a key element of the Welsh Conservative proposals for education.

The party says it will re-establish the right for parents to withdraw their children from sex education and religious education lessons.

There is also a focus on Welsh medium education, with the party looking to create more Welsh-medium schools and require all local authorities to ensure parents have a choice of both English and Welsh medium schools.

In addition, the Welsh Conservatives say they will ban mobile phones in schools, and support a ban on social media for under-16s.

End 20mph speed limits

Similarly to Reform UK, the Welsh Conservatives propose abolishing the 20mph limits implemented by Labour across Wales.

Described as ending the “war on motorists”, the Conservatives say they would reverse the 20mph default speed limit in built up areas, unfreeze all road projects, and abandon plans for road pricing.

A paper published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health is often cited by opponents to the 20mph speed limits in Wales as it found that ‘restricting speed limits to 20mph did not seem to reduce road traffic collisions, casualties, or driver speed’ - but these results have been widely misrepresented.

Walk Wheel Cycle Trust noted that the study focused on the results of a small-scale 20mph speed limits implementation across 70 streets in Belfast where the average speed before the trial was only 17mph meaning the new speed limits made little difference to vehicle speeds in the area.

The study was part of a two-site research with Edinburgh where 20mph limits were implemented city-wide.

In Edinburgh researchers found significant positive results for collisions, casualties and speed and recommended 20mph speed limits were implemented citywide.

Data published in June 2024 by the Welsh Government on police recorded road collisions also showed reduced casualties on 20/30mph roads since the implementation of 20mph.

The manifesto also highlights other key transport policies including building the M4 relief road, upgrading the A55, delivering a third Menai crossing and progressing the dualling of the A40 in west Wales.

Costings

A major criticism levelled against the Welsh Conservatives following their manifesto launch was the failure to cost proposals.

David Phillips, head of devolved and local government finance at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “The Welsh Conservatives' manifesto contains a list of areas where they would like to spend more: lower tuition fees (or fee refunds) for some university students; investment in major road schemes; and an extra £20 million a year in farm funding."

“These will all increase financial pressure. But the manifesto has very little to say about where the Conservative Party might make the kind of savings needed to offset the cost of its tax cuts."

“There is an implicit reliance on unspecified ‘efficiency savings’ – on top of those already being assumed in budget planning.

“There are undoubtedly ways to improve public sector productivity, not least given the poor productivity performance since the Covid-19 pandemic."

“But it is much easier to promise efficiency savings than to deliver them – and history is replete with governments failing to achieve productivity targets and having to top up budgets."

“Reliance on unspecified and uncertain efficiency savings to pay for tax cuts would therefore be risky."

“And a high-profile pledge to cut the number of Senedd members from 96 back to 60 would save just £13 million a year in recurrent costs – a rounding error in the Welsh Government’s budget, and at most 3% of the cost of proposed tax cuts."

“It is therefore hard to see how the proposed combination of tax cuts and spending increases could be paid for without significant cutbacks in at least some Welsh Government services.”

Candidates
Bangor Conwy Môn: Janet Finch Saunders, Harry Saville, Martin Peet, Sam Cotton, David Ashworth, Lucy Samuel
Gwynedd Maldwyn: Aled Davies, Henreitta Hensher, Peter Lewington, Hedd Thomas, Daniel Spilsbury, Roger Cracknell

You can read The Welsh Conservatives' full manifesto here.