Powys MS given new role after Reform's Royal Welsh Show news
Nigel Farage used an appearance at the Royal Welsh Show on Tuesday that Laura Anne Jones had crossed the floor to join Reform UK.
Now Brecon and Radnorshire MS James Evans has been awarded the Armed Forces brief that she previously occupied.
It means he is now the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health, Social Care and the Armed Forces.
Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar MS also announced that Joel James will become the new Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Housing, and Natasha Asghar is is taking on a wider portfolio and becomes the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Children, Young People and Education.
The Local Government and Housing portfolios were also part of Ms Jones' brief before she defected to Reform. Ms Ashgar was previously in charge of education for the Shadow Cabinet, and takes on the roles previously occupied by Mr James.
Mr Evans has previously denied reports that he was set to defect to Reform, calling the claims "simply not true".
Mr Millar said: "I am pleased to announce today's changes to my Shadow Cabinet team.
"The Welsh Conservatives are the only credible alternative to the failing Labour Government here in Wales, and we are the only conservative party that will be on the ballot paper in the Senedd elections next May.
"After 26 years of devolution under Labour, our country is broken, only the Welsh Conservatives will fix Wales."
The full Conservative shadow cabinet in Wales.
Leader of the Opposition - Darren Millar MS
Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Chief Whip and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution - Paul Davies MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for, Children, Young People and Education - Natasha Asghar MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism, Sport and North Wales - Gareth Davies MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health, Social Care and the Armed Forces- James Evans MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Environment - Janet Finch-Saunders MS
Shadow Counsel General, and Shadow Secretary for Delivery, External Affairs and Welsh Language – Tom Giffard MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Equalities and Social Justice - Altaf Hussain MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Housing – Joel James MS
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Energy and Rural Affairs - Samuel Kurtz MS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
Surrey County Council heading to a financial 'cliff's edge'
A council in Surrey could be pushed to the brink of financial crisis if government reforms go ahead, aimed at evening out local authority funding, its leader has Oliver said Surrey County Council could be heading towards a "cliff edge" under proposals which could dramatically reduce its government is looking at scrapping the current council tax funding model in favour of a national 100% "equaliser" system where each local authority gets the same amount of council leader Mr Oliver's warning came during a cabinet meeting, where he suggested the government's Fair Funding Review would hit Surrey harder than most councils due to its higher council tax base. Mr Oliver said: "There is an expectation we will look to our residents to fill that gap. "That gap won't be filled- can't be filled- even if we were to increase council tax by 5%."Currently, Surrey has a high council tax base, meaning it has more band H houses, paying at least £3,692.70 in 2025, compared to other parts of the funding reforms under consideration could flatten out this advantage by reallocating resources away from wealthier counties like Surrey and towards lower-income authorities, according to Local Democracy Reporting Oliver said: "It's absolutely essential that we drive efficiencies wherever possible."A government statement on the Fair Funding Review said: "Our reforms will take into account the different needs and costs faced by communities across the country, including adjusting for the costs of remoteness faced by rural communities, and the ability of individual local authorities to raise council tax, while also resetting business rates income."It will update the crucial formulae used to calculate funding allocations, which are a decade out of date."
Glasgow Times
9 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Fact check: ‘Asylum hotels', employment data and ‘enhanced customs monitoring'
Is the Government 'opening up' asylum hotels? Earlier this week, amid concern about unrest outside a hotel in Epping used to house asylum seekers, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly MP claimed in a broadcast interview: '[Labour] are opening up asylum hotels, they are increasing the use of asylum accommodation around the country'. It is true that under Labour the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has increased, as our Government Tracker explains. According to the latest available data, 32,345 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at the end of March 2025, up from 29,585 at the end of June 2024, just before Labour came into office. The data also showed there were 71,339 asylum seekers living in other types of non-hotel accommodation at the end of March 2025, compared with 67,057 at the end of June 2024. The majority were in 'dispersal accommodation', which is longer-term temporary accommodation managed by providers on behalf of the Home Office, with others housed in 'initial accommodation', which is typically shared accommodation while an asylum seeker is having their claim for support assessed. The Home Office told us that 210 asylum hotels are currently in use as of July 23, and that they expected more to close. On March 3 2025, Dame Angela Eagle MP, minister for border security and asylum, said that in July 2024 there were 213 hotels in operation, suggesting the number of hotels in use is currently slightly lower than when Labour first came into office. According to the Home Office's latest accounts, 'the total number of contracted hotels reduced by 71 across 2024-25', although it did not specify the starting or end totals, and this time period also includes figures from when the Conservatives were in office. It is worth noting however that while the overall number of hotels in use appears to have come down slightly, there have been recent reports of new hotels being intended to house asylum seekers. It is possible this is what Sir James meant when he said Labour was 'opening up' hotels. We have contacted Sir James for comment. Unemployment and jobs: what has happened under Labour? In recent weeks we have seen contrasting claims being made about the labour market – in particular, on how unemployment has changed since Labour came into Government in July 2024. There are a number of different sources of statistics on the labour market. These datasets all measure slightly different things, and as a result debate on employment, unemployment and jobs can often be confusing – for example, we regularly see seemingly contradictory claims on these topics made during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), when in fact each side is referring to completely different data. For instance, during some recent sessions of PMQs, both the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner have claimed that 384,000 jobs have been created under Labour. These claims have been challenged by the Conservative party and others, who have pointed out that under Labour unemployment has risen. This confusion is likely because Sir Keir and Ms Rayner are referring to workforce jobs data, which includes both employed and self-employed jobs and does indeed show a 384,000 increase in the number of jobs between June 2024 and March 2025 (the latest month for which figures are available). But these figures look at the number of jobs and are not comparable with data on actual employment (or unemployment), which looks at the number of people who are (or are not) working, as some people have more than one job. Going abroad four times a year will not flag you to HMRC for 'enhanced customs monitoring' We have seen a number of social media posts claiming that the Government is introducing a new system called 'enhanced customs monitoring' on August 4 to 'track UK residents who leave the country more than three times within a 12-month period' to check they are living within their means. But this is not true, and no such system exists. Videos circulating online claim that on someone's fourth trip abroad, an automatic alert will be sent to the 'mobility oversight unit', said to be a new branch under HMRC and the Home Office, which will check whether people's 'declared income, employment status and tax residency match [their] lifestyle'. The videos claim this new system was revealed after a leaked briefing was reported by the Guardian newspaper. They go on to say this includes both holidays and work trips, and all modes of travel. A spokesperson for HMRC confirmed the information is untrue and told Full Fact that 'this video is disinformation, designed to cause undue alarm and fear'. They added: 'Anyone wanting information on rules around taxation should go to or seek advice from a tax professional.' Full Fact could not find any results for 'enhanced customs monitoring' or a 'mobility oversight unit' on UK Government websites, or on the Guardian website.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on standards in politics: a golden reform opportunity squandered
A year ago, following Labour's election win and the Conservative rout, the new government's standing could hardly have been higher or its opportunities greater. The political field lay open, in ways that it only does after an election, for serious political reform. One of the most trenchant sections of Sir Keir Starmer's election manifesto had pinpointed 'a crisis of confidence in our political system'. Labour had accordingly promised 'a reset in our public life'. Twelve months ago, the voters gave permission to Sir Keir to do just that. Fatally, he failed to seize the opportunity. Instead, the chance to make radical change to Britain's government and politics has largely been squandered. As a result, the work of rebuilding confidence has become harder than ever, as the continuing rise of Reform UK makes clear. The government's new ethics and integrity commission, a manifesto promise, should have been launched decisively last year on a tide of post-election reforming commitment and goodwill. Instead, momentum was lost by the freebie furore and wider policy failures. Long overdue, the commission was quietly announced on Monday in a written parliamentary statement to MPs, which few of them are likely to have read, on the eve of the summer recess. It is false to claim, as the Conservatives did this week, that this was a Labour attempt to bury bad news. The Tories are in no position to talk, having so often trashed the existing standards regimes in recent years. But Labour should be ashamed. It should not have left things unaddressed for so long, so that the impetus for post-Tory reform and for rebuilt trust were wasted. The statement, published by the Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden, is fine as far as it goes. Uncertainty over whether the commission would be an oversight body for standards regulation, or would bundle up the work of established committees and regulators, has been resolved. It will mainly be the former, beefing up and replacing the committee on standards in public life (as advocated by Sir John Major) while leaving individual cases to a reduced number of regulatory bodies. The current advisory committee on business appointments will also be scrapped, with its ministerial and civil service arms enforced by separate bodies. As a tidying-up exercise, this all makes sense. The real problem is that a golden chance to reform the system in a watertight way has been passed up. The McFadden statement implies ministers want to avoid legislation to set up the commission. The result is that enforcement is not properly addressed or strengthened. The role of independent scrutiny, essential for public confidence, is left hanging. The statement leaves enforcement sanctions too vague. It is good that ex-ministers should 'be expected' to lose their severance pay if they take post-ministerial jobs that raise conflicts of interest. But what if that expectation is not fulfilled? Or if the rewards of such jobs are so high that the loss of severance pay is treated as a price worth paying? The system risks looking toothless. Cleaning up politics is not an optional priority. It is a compulsory one. These steps don't go far enough. Nor do they suggest a ruthless culture of ethical behaviour, led from the top, of the kind required. Mr McFadden's statement accepts that the changes will depend on the public's wider view of the work of politicians and government. That is indeed the problem. But there is not enough here to shift that dial.
