1999 Welsh Conservatives leadership election

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1999 Welsh Conservatives leadership election
← 1998 11–18 August 1999 2011 →
 
Candidate Nick Bourne
Popular vote Unopposed
Leader before election

Rod Richards[a]

 Elected Leader

Nick Bourne

The 1999 Welsh Conservatives leadership election took place in August 1999 to elect the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales following the resignation of previous leader Rod Richards on 10 August. Nick Bourne, who lost to Richards in the previous leadership election in 1998, was elected unopposed as the party's leader in the National Assembly as the only candidate nominated for the position.

Background[edit]

In 1998, the UK Conservative Party in Wales was reorganised as the Welsh Conservative Party and given limited autonomy from the wider UK party.[1] A leadership election was held in the same year to elect the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales ahead of the first assembly election in 1999.[2][3] Two candidates stood for the position.[2] Academic Nick Bourne, the party's chief spokesman for Wales and the chairman of the unsuccessful Just Say NO campaign in the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum, was widely seen as the preferred candidate of UK party leader William Hague[4] and stood as the more moderate candidate, cautiously accepting the implementation of devolution.[5][6] Former MP Rod Richards, known for his combative style of politics and anti-devolutionist views, stood as the more radical right-wing Thatcherite candidate.[6][5] Richards was elected leader of the Welsh Conservative Group by the Welsh party membership and became the first to serve in this position after the assembly's creation in 1999.[3][7]

Under Rod Richards' leadership, the Welsh Conservatives adopted a strategy of opposing devolution and emphasising British identity.[1][8] Richards led the party into the first assembly election, where the Conservatives won enough seats to become the third-largest party behind Plaid Cymru.[9] This was disappointing for the party, which won nine seats but had expected beforehand to become the second-largest party behind Labour instead.[1] Richards announced his frontbench team shortly after. All nine Conservative assembly members (AMs) were given portfolios, with Bourne becoming the party's spokesperson for finance and David TC Davies becoming Richards' deputy.[10] Two months into his leadership in the assembly,[11] Richards was arrested and charged for causing grievous bodily harm to Cassandra Melvin, a 22-year-old woman, in Kew, London, on 22 July 1999. He was released on bail, pending a court hearing on 8 September.[12][13] Richards denied the charges but stepped down as leader of the Welsh Conservative Group on 4 August for a temporary period to focus on his defence, promising to return once he had proved his innocence.[14][12][15] He appointed his deputy David TC Davies as acting leader to lead the group in his absence.[16] Richards wanted Davies to serve as his successor should he resign.[17]

Campaign[edit]

Nick Bourne put forward his nomination for the leadership to Conservative Central Office on 11 August 1999, thus triggering the opening of the nominations process for other potential challengers.[18][19] According to a spokesman representing Bourne, five of the nine AMs in the Conservative Group had signed his nomination.[18] Henri Lloyd Davies, chair of the Welsh Conservative Party, announced that nominations would remain open for seven days.[20] Nominations had to be signed from at least three of the nine party AMs and submitted to the chief whip David TC Davies to be considered valid.[18] If only one candidate was nominated by the closure of nominations on 18 August, they had to have the support of at least two-thirds of party AMs before they could be elected unopposed as the new leader.[20]

Acccording to the South Wales Echo, Bourne was expected to be the only contender for the leadership, allowing him to be elected unopposed.[19] Bourne was described as the favourite to win the election by the South Wales Evening Post and, according to the Echo's political correspondent Richard Hazlewood, the nominations process was widely seen as just a formality to install Bourne as the official leader of the Welsh Conservative Group.[21][20] According to BBC News, Bourne had secured the support of most of the Conservative AMs by 16 August, not including Richards or his deputy David TC Davies.[22] On 13 August, Davies said he would support whoever was elected the new leader, but added that he felt "disappointed" by his colleagues for claiming that he was inexperienced.[23]

Results[edit]

After the closure of nominations on 18 August, Davies as chief whip announced that Bourne was the only person nominated for the leadership. He therefore declared that Bourne was elected unopposed as leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales.[24][25][26] Bourne praised Davies for his conduct during the election and gave him a new role as the member of the Welsh Conservative frontbench responsible for policy presentation.[26] Davies pledged to take the Labour administration to account and to focus his party in the assembly on issues relating to farming, the Welsh NHS and European aid. He also said the Conservatives would argue "for a distinctive Welsh policy ... on all sorts of issues".[25] He reshuffled the Conservative frontbench in the assembly on 25 August, removing Davies as deputy leader while making him the new environment spokesperson. Richards was not given a post in Bourne's new frontbench team, making him the only Conservative AM to serve as a backbencher, though Bourne promised to appoint him to it at a later date once he was cleared of his allegations of assault.[27][28]

Aftermath[edit]

Richards was the first of several assembly party leaders who resigned within a year of the National Assembly for Wales's creation in 1999, followed by Labour's Alun Michael and Plaid Cymru's Dafydd Wigley. These resignations reflected the instability of the newly established institution in the first year of its existence.[29] Richards continued to serve as a Conservative backbencher in the National Assembly until February 2000, when members of the Welsh Conservative Group decided to suspend the whip from him for abstaining in a vote on a draft budget for the assembly in December; Conservative AMs were whipped to vote against the draft budget.[30][31][17] In response to his suspension, Richards called Bourne a "prat" during an assembly session and hosted a press conference where he accused most members of the Welsh Conservative Group of having taken part in a conspiracy to remove him as leader.[17][32] He defended his former deputy David TC Davies, claiming that he was not involved in the alleged conspiracy, but denounced the seven other AMs in the group as the "malevolent seven", describing the meeting where they voted to suspend him as a "kangaroo court".[30] He continued to sit in the assembly as an Independent Conservative before retiring from the institution in 2002,[31] and he was cleared of all charges related to the allegations of grievious bodily harm in June 2000.[33][34]

Bourne continued to serve as the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales until he lost his seat at the 2011 assembly election.[35][36] Now under the control of a more moderate, devolutionist faction, the Conservatives in Wales saw a significant change to their political strategy as compared to under Richards, with Bourne working with the Welsh Conservatives' chief policy adviser David Melding to make the party more distinctly Welsh in identity and generally supportive of devolution.[37][38][39] The Welsh party gradually moderated its policies on issues such as education and health, rejecting the calls for private outsourcing made by the Conservatives in England and calling for increased investment in public services, and came to commit itself to a distinctly Welsh approach different to that of the party in England.[40][41] The next Welsh Conservatives leadership election would be held in 2011, with Andrew RT Davies defeating Nick Ramsay to succeed Bourne as leader of the Welsh Conservative Group.[42] Davies continued Bourne's strategy of making the Welsh party more supportive of devolution but also took on a more populist approach.[39][43]

See also[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Richards announced his temporary resignation on 4 August, appointing his deputy David TC Davies as acting leader. This was overruled at a meeting of the Welsh Conservative Group on 9 August, with Nick Bourne elected to succeed Davies as acting leader. Richards then made his resignation permanent in protest.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Melding, David (2007). Will Britain Survive Beyond 2020? (PDF). Institute of Welsh Affiars. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-1-904773-43-6. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Tory battle over Welsh job". BBC News. 14 October 1998. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Welsh Tories choose ex-minister". BBC News. 10 November 1998. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Rod Richards: A career profile". BBC News. 6 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Bourne leader at the second attempt". BBC News. 4 April 2003. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b Hough, Dan; Jeffery, Charlie (28 May 2006). Devolution and Electoral Politics. Manchester University Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-7190-7330-4.
  7. ^ Shipton, Martin (14 July 2019). "Conservative politician Rod Richards dies after long battle with cancer". Wales Online. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  8. ^ Torrance, David (31 October 2021). Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland?. Edinburgh University Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-7486-7044-4. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  9. ^ "Tories seek place in new Wales". BBC News. 16 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  10. ^ "How the opposition cabinets line up". South Wales Echo. 13 May 1999. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  11. ^ Mulholland, Hélène (18 April 2007). "'Devolution means we do things differently'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  12. ^ a b "GBH allegation untrue, says Welsh Tory". BBC News. 6 August 1999. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Richards bailed on GBH charge". BBC News. 8 September 1999. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  14. ^ Sengputa, Kim (5 August 1999). "Leading Tory charged with GBH". The Independent. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  15. ^ "Welsh Conservative leader denies assault". BBC News. 6 August 1999. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  16. ^ "Special Report: Welsh Tories". BBC News. 6 August 1999. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  17. ^ a b c "Tory AM's 'conspiracy' claim". BBC News. 8 February 2000. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  18. ^ a b c "Bourne nominated for Welsh Tory leadership". BBC News. 11 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  19. ^ a b "Leadership bid". South Wales Echo. 12 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  20. ^ a b c Hazlewood, Richard (11 August 1999). "Bourne takes over after Tory leader Rod resigns". South Wales Echo. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  21. ^ "Leadership fight starts". South Wales Evening Post. 12 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  22. ^ "Welsh Tories await leadership decision". BBC News. 16 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  23. ^ "'Disappointed' by comments". South Wales Echo. 13 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  24. ^ "A new era as Bourne named as Tory leader". South Wales Echo. 19 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  25. ^ a b Hazlewood, Richard (19 August 1998). "Tory leader promises Labour hot times ahead". South Wales Echo. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  26. ^ a b "City man Nick is new Tory leader". South Wales Evening Post. 19 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  27. ^ "Bourne snubs Richards in cabinet". BBC News. 25 August 1999. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  28. ^ Nifield, Phillip (25 August 1999). "New Welsh Tory leader's 'cabinet' reshuffle". South Wales Echo. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  29. ^ Osmond, John; Jones, James Barry (2003). Birth of Welsh Democracy: The First Term of the National Assembly for Wales. Institute of Welsh Affairs. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-871726-94-7. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  30. ^ a b Gibbs, Geoffrey (9 February 2000). "Tory's outburst after losing party whip". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  31. ^ a b Williams, James (30 July 2019). "Rod Richards: Outspoken former Tory leader in Wales who did not pull his punches". The Independent. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  32. ^ "Rod Richards obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  33. ^ Hartley-Brewer, Julia (24 June 2000). "Ex-Tory minister cleared of assault". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  34. ^ "Rod Richards cleared of assault". BBC News. 23 June 2000. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  35. ^ "Welsh Tory leader Nick Bourne loses regional seat". BBC News Mid Wales. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  36. ^ Williamson, David (1 August 2013). "Former Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne among 30 new peers appointed to House of Lords". Wales Online. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  37. ^ Blaxland, Sam. "Welsh Conservatives: Far From a Contradiction in Terms". Planet Extra. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  38. ^ Convery, Alan (15 July 2016). The territorial Conservative Party: Devolution and party change in Scotland and Wales. Manchester University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-5261-0054-2. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  39. ^ a b Livingstone, Tomos (30 March 2016). "Welsh Assembly election: Conservative devolution vision". BBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  40. ^ Convery, Alan (2014). "Welsh Conservatism: The Unexpected Evolution" (PDF). British Politics Review. 9 (4). University of Edinbrugh: 10–11. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  41. ^ Greer, Scott L.; Rowland, David (2007). Devolving Policy, Diverging Values?: The Values of the United Kingdom's National Health Services (PDF). The Nuffield Trust. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-905030-29-3. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  42. ^ Quinn, Thomas (7 February 2012). Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders in Britain. Springer. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-230-36278-9. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  43. ^ Scully, Roger (27 June 2018). "What does Andrew RT Davies' resignation mean for Welsh Tories?". The Spectator. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
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