Andrew RT Davies became Leader of the Opposition in July 2011, after he was elected leader of the Welsh Conservatives,[1] which formed the second largest party bloc in the National Assembly for Wales (later Senedd) after the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election.

At the 2011 election, the Conservatives became the second largest overall party, gaining two seats, whilst Plaid Cymru lost 4.

[5] However, after Dafydd Elis-Thomas left Plaid Cymru,[6] and UKIP's Mark Reckless joined the Conservative group in the Assembly the Welsh Conservatives again became the largest Assembly Group,[7] allowing Andrew RT Davies to form his Second Shadow Cabinet in 2017.

[11][12][4] In February 2014, Nick Ramsay, Antoinette Sandbach, Mohammad Asghar and Janet Finch-Saunders were all removed from the Shadow Cabinet, after they did not vote on a Senedd motion criticising the model of devolution of income tax powers proposed by the UK Conservative government.

[13][14] This reshuffle was criticised by UK Conservative Party colleague David TC Davies saying "I'm very surprised because Nick [Ramsay] and the others were backing [UK Government] policy, backing the policy of David Jones which is if income tax is devolved after a referendum it needs to be done with certain restrictions in place.