:Frontbench Team of Rod Richards

{{Infobox government cabinet

|cabinet_name=Frontbench Team of Rod Richards

|jurisdiction=the National Assembly for Wales

|cabinet_type=Frontbench Team

|flag=Flag of Wales 2.svg

|flag_border=true

|incumbent=May–August 1999

|image=Rodrogers1999.jpg

|date_formed=13 May 1999

|date_dissolved=10 August 1999

|government_head=Rod Richards

|government_head_title=Leader

|deputy_government_head=David TC Davies

|political_party={{ubl|{{Color box|{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}|border=darkgray}} Welsh Conservatives}}

|legislature_status=Opposition party {{Composition bar|9|60|{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}|background-color=|border border-color=darkgray|width=|per=1}}

|legislature_term=1st National Assembly for Wales

|previous=Assembly established

|successor=Frontbench Team of Nick Bourne

}}

Rod Richards, the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople on 13 May 1998. Richards had led his party into the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election after being elected as leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in 1998.

History

In 1997, Tony Blair's UK Labour Party secured a landslide victory in the 1997 general election and entered government on a manifesto of holding a devolution referendum in Wales to determine whether to establish a devolved assembly for Wales.{{Cite news |date=6 May 2024 |title=Welsh devolution at 25: Reflecting on 25 years since the first Senedd election |url=https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2024-05-06/welsh-devolution-at-25-reflecting-on-25-years-since-the-first-senedd-election |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=ITV News}}{{Cite web |date=19 September 2017 |title=Twenty quotes to mark twenty years since Wales said yes |url=https://senedd.wales/senedd-now/senedd-blog/twenty-quotes-to-mark-twenty-years-since-wales-said-yes/ |access-date=31 May 2024 |website=Senedd Cymru / Welsh Parliament}} The Conservative Party under John Major and William Hague opposed devolution and campaigned for a No vote in the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum held in September 1997, which returned a narrow majority in favour of establishing such an assembly.{{Cite book |last=Mumford |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E5UVAQAAIAAJ |title=Stabbed in the Front: Post-war General Elections Through Political Cartoons |date=2001 |publisher=Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury |isbn=978-1-902671-20-8 |page=141 |language=en |access-date=31 May 2024}} Following the referendum, the Conservative Party in Wales was reorganised as the Welsh Conservative Party and given limited autonomy from the wider UK party.{{Cite book |last=Melding |first=David |author-link=David Melding |url=https://www.iwa.wales/wp-content/media/2016/03/willbritainsurvive.pdf |title=Will Britain Survive Beyond 2020? |publisher=Institute of Welsh Affiars |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-904773-43-6 |pages=177–178 |access-date=23 May 2024}} A leadership election was held in 1998 to elect the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales ahead of the first assembly election in 1999.{{Cite news |date=14 October 1998 |title=Tory battle over Welsh job |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/193339.stm |access-date=23 May 2024 |work=BBC News}}{{Cite news |date=10 November 1998 |title=Welsh Tories choose ex-minister |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/211472.stm |access-date=23 May 2024 |work=BBC News}}

Former MP Rod Richards, known for his combative style of politics and anti-devolutionist views,{{Cite book |last1=Hough |first1=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cj7LQHiITqQC&pg=PA233 |title=Devolution and Electoral Politics |last2=Jeffery |first2=Charlie |date=28 May 2006 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7330-4 |page=233 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=4 April 2003 |title=Bourne leader at the second attempt |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2906937.stm |access-date=23 May 2024 |work=BBC News}} was elected leader of the Welsh Conservative Group by the Welsh party membership and became the first person to serve in this position after the assembly's creation in 1999.{{Cite news |last=Shipton |first=Martin |date=14 July 2019 |title=Conservative politician Rod Richards dies after long battle with cancer |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/conservative-politician-rod-richards-dead-16582523 |access-date=23 May 2024 |work=Wales Online}}

The Welsh Conservatives went into the first assembly election in May 1999 on a platform of unionism and devo-scepticism.{{Cite news |last=Blaxland |first=Sam |title=Welsh Conservatives: Far From a Contradiction in Terms… |url=https://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/planet-extra/welsh-conservatives-far-contradiction-term |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=Planet Extra}}{{Cite book |last=Torrance |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=da1vAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128 |title=Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland? |date=31 October 2012 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-7044-4 |page=128 |access-date=31 May 2024}} The party expected to become the official opposition in the assembly, winning the second-most seats behind the Labour Party in Wales led by Alun Michael. Richards launched his party's election campaign at a press conference in April 1999, where he announced the members of his planned shadow cabinet in advance of the election result.{{Cite news |date=9 April 1999 |title=Tories snub Bourne |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1006745396 |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=South Wales Evening Post}} Most appointees to the planned shadow cabinet were Conservative candidates in South Wales.{{Cite news |date=8 April 1999 |title=Shadow Cabinet named |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/924215231 |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=South Wales Echo}} Controversially, Richards did not appoint Bourne to the planned shadow cabinet, nor did he appoint any women.{{Cite news |last=Speed |first=Nick |date=6 May 1999 |title=Campaign failed to excite voters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/924196012 |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=South Wales Echo}} This was seen as evidence of the continued strain in the two men's relationship since the leadership election.{{Cite news |date=9 April 1999 |title=Fighting on front bench |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1006745586 |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=South Wales Evening Post}}

At the first assembly election on 6 May 1999, the Welsh Conservatives won enough seats to become the third-largest party behind Plaid Cymru, which became the official opposition to Alun Michael's Labour administration. The party performed below its own expectations. It only won nine seats in the assembly, with several appointees to Richards' planned shadow cabinet failing to successfully win an assembly seat. Under the political system of the assembly, only the official opposition, in this case Plaid Cymru, could form the Shadow Cabinet of Wales.{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Rhys |date=27 May 2021 |title=Shadow Cabinet roles for regional Senedd Members |url=https://caerphilly.observer/news/1001497/shadow-cabinet-roles-for-regional-senedd-members/ |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=Caerphilly Observer}} Other opposition parties in the assembly, including the Conservatives, could appoint frontbench teams of party spokespeople. Like members of the shadow cabinet, frontbenchers were given portfolios which generally matched the duties of devolved government ministers in the assembly administration.{{Cite book |last=Deacon |first=Russell |title=Government and Politics of Wales |date=20 December 2017 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-9974-2 |page=108 |language=en}}

Richards formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople on 13 May 1998, on the same day as Mike German's Welsh Liberal Democrats.{{Cite news |date=13 May 1999 |title=How the opposition cabinets line up |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/924200265 |access-date=31 May 2024 |work=South Wales Echo}} All nine assembly members (AMs) from the Welsh Conservative Group were given frontbench roles, including Richards' leadership rival Nick Bourne, who became the party's spokesperson for finance. David TC Davies, Richards' campaign manager, was appointed deputy leader of the Welsh Conservative Group and as the group's business manager and chief whip. Other appointments included William Graham as deputy business manager, Alun Cairns as spokesperson for economic development and Europe, David Melding as spokesperson for health and social services, Jonathan Morgan as spokesperson for education, Glyn Davies as spokesperson for agriculture and Peter Rodgers as spokesperson for environment, transport and planning.

Members

class="wikitable"

! colspan="1" |Portfolio

! colspan="3" |Spokesperson

! colspan="1" |Constituency

! colspan="1" |Term

Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group

| style="background: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}; width: 1px" |

|100px

| Rod Richards AM{{Efn|Richards appointed David TC Davies as acting leader in August 1999 but this appointment was later overruled at a meeting of the Welsh Conservative Group and other senior Welsh Conservatives, with Nick Bourne made acting leader instead; this led Richards to announce his permanent resignation as Welsh party leader.}}

| North Wales

|May 1999–August 1999

Deputy Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group
Welsh Conservative Group Business Manager
Welsh Conservative Group Chief Whip

! style= "background: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}; width: 1px" |

| 100px

| David TC Davies AM

|Monmouth

|May 1999–August 1999

Welsh Conservative Group Deputy Business Manager

! style="background-color: {{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}; width: 1px" |

|File:Official portrait of William Graham AM.jpg

|William Graham AM