Andrew RT Davies

Andrew Robert Tudor Davies CBE (born 28 November 1968) is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of the Senedd for the South Wales Central region since 2007.

He has previously served as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Senedd Group from 2011 to 2018 and 2021 to 2024. Both times Davies resigned due to pressure from within his party to do so. As a consequence of being leader of the Welsh Conservatives, he has served a total of four terms as Leader of the Opposition, from his first from 2011 to 2016, his second from 2017 to 2018, his third from January-March 2021 and his fourth and final from May 2021-2024.

Andrew Robert Tudor Davies was educated at Llanfair Primary School, St John's Preparatory School, Porthcawl, and later boarded at Wycliffe College, Stroud. He is married to a qualified midwife and they have four children. He is a partner in the family farming business based in St Hilary near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan. Davies was a Welsh delegate on the Council of the National Farmers Union (NFU), vice-president of the local Young Farmers Club, and is a former chairman of Creative Communities, which seeks to develop structural community development. Davies is also a life governor of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, and was the Society's Oxford Farming Conference Scholar in 2002. He is a former governor at Llanfair Primary School.

Joining the Conservative Party in 1997, Davies fought Cardiff West in the 2001 general election, and Brecon and Radnorshire in 2005. He served as Deputy Chairman (Political) for the Conservative Party in South Wales Central from 2002 to 2003, a region that comprises the Conservative Associations in Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Between 2004 and 2005 he was Deputy Chairman of the Cardiff West Conservative Association.

In 2007, he was elected to the National Assembly of Wales on the South Wales Central regional list. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Transport by Nick Bourne. During his time as Shadow Transport Minister he supported protests from Welsh hauliers over the cost of fuel.

On 16 June 2008 he was reshuffled to the role of Shadow Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills. While in this role, he supported the removal of the flat-rate financial support grant at the time provided to Welsh people who studied at Welsh universities, and criticised that both spending and achievement were lagging behind English counterparts.

He also sat on the Assembly's Petitions Committee and the Subordinate Legislation Committee.

In February 2009 he became the Shadow Minister for Health in the National Assembly for Wales. He then resigned from the role in November 2010, shortly after a wider reshuffle. He claimed at the time of his resignation he was not seeking the leadership of the Welsh Conservative Group.