Natasha Asghar MS

Following Davies's controversial poll at the Vale of Glamorgan Show inviting attendees to vote on abolishing the Senedd, Asghar was among the shadow cabinet members who publicly broke ranks to criticise the move. As one of the party's most high-profile members and its most visible representative of ethnic diversity, her intervention carried significant weight.

Asghar offered a nuanced position that reflected her evolution on the devolution question: she acknowledged having had 'reservations about the Assembly becoming a Parliament' but stressed that her 'stance has since changed.' She argued that 'devolution is not the issue here — the issue is the people who have been running the show for the last 25 years,' directing her criticism squarely at Labour and Plaid rather than at the institution itself. Her observation that it was 'rather amusing that the vocal few pushing for abolition had no problem with the Senedd when they were on its payroll' was a pointed rebuke of colleagues flirting with abolitionism for electoral advantage. This positioning — accepting devolution while relentlessly attacking its current operators — represents the mainstream Welsh Conservative approach and distinguishes it from Reform's more ambiguous stance. Asghar's social media presence (particularly on TikTok) gives her an outsized reach among younger voters compared to most Senedd members, making her criticisms of devolved policies like the 20mph limit particularly effective at shaping public perception.