Stephen Crabb: Conservatives can deliver more AMs in 2016
The Conservatives can deliver more AMs at next year's assembly election following their general election success, the Welsh Secretary has said.
Stephen Crabb also said Labour remaining in power "election after election" was "not a healthy thing". The Conservatives delivered their best results since 1983 this year when they returned 11 Welsh MPs to Westminster. Meanwhile, the Green Party's Welsh leader Pippa Bartolotti said they are targeting three regional seats. Mr Crabb told BBC Radio Wales there was "every reason to be optimistic and upbeat" about the assembly vote. 'Exciting campaign' He told the Sunday Supplement programme: "We will be going into that with a very clear strategy. "We're in good heart as Welsh Conservatives. We've got a great team of assembly candidates and I think it will be a very exciting campaign. "Labour's record as having their hand on the tiller of Welsh government for the last 16 years will very much be under scrutiny at this election." Mr Crabb said the party could not ignore the "Jeremy Corbyn factor" but would be focusing on Welsh issues and Welsh Labour. 'Up for the fight' The Green Party's leader in Wales, Pippa Bartolotti, told BBC Wales' Sunday Politics Wales programme the party is confident of gaining its first seats. She described this year's General Election as a "dress rehearsal" for next May's vote, with a lot of "bedding in" of new candidates. The party is targeting the mid and west, south Wales central and south Wales west regional seats. "No one says it's going to be easy but we're up for the fight, we're up for the challenge," she said.