Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 10 May 2022.
Llywydd, I too am not surprised at the opposition of the Welsh Conservatives to the further development of democracy here in Wales. All the arguments that I hear deployed are exactly the arguments that they deployed in opposing devolution in the first place. This is an entirely unreconstructed party when it comes to these matters. We don't need to pour salt in open wounds here, I'm sure, but people around the Chamber will know that, on Thursday of last week, in Scotland, 23 per cent of Conservative councillors were lost at the election; in England, 25 per cent of Conservative councillors failed to be re-elected; and in Wales the number went down by 44 per cent. That just has to tell you something. It tells you something about the way in which the continuing reactionary positions taken by the Welsh Conservatives just do not chime with the way in which people in Wales want to see their democracy develop. People want to see a Chamber here that is properly equipped to do the job that we are asked to do. Report after report and commission after commission,have demonstrated that, with its current membership and the level of responsibilities that are discharged here, you cannot do the job in the way that people in Wales have a right to expect it to be done. The reforms that we've agreed on will put that right, and will put it right not just for the next 10 years but I think for the foreseeable future.