VOTERS in Wales would opt to scrap the National Assembly if a referendum was held today, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has claimed.

Writing in the Sunday Times the South Wales Central AM said the political establishment in Wales and across the UK had been given “a kicking” in June’s referendum into the UK’s membership of the European Union.

Mr Davies said he believed a vote on the Assembly’s existence, held in the current political landscape, would result in the Senedd closing its doors for good.

“The result was tight in 1997, but if the question were put to the people tomorrow I believe that they would vote to abolish the National Assembly,” he said.

“I say that with no pleasure. In fact, the proposition saddens me.”

Mr Davies placed the blame at the feet of the Welsh Assembly, which has been under the control of Labour, albeit in coalition with the Liberal Democrats between 1999 and 2003 and with Plaid Cymru from 2007 to 2011, since it was established, claiming it had failed to “establish itself in people’s minds as a cherished home of Welsh democracy”.

“There is a vein of anti-establishment feeling coursing through society and it is naive and reckless to think that devolution would be immune to that,” he said.

He also hit out at Carwyn Jones and his Labour colleagues for continuing to maintain an anti-Brexit stance despite the referendum result, saying: “The backlash from voters, if it comes, will be intense.

“Having misjudged the mood of his own constituents, who voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, the first minister is in danger of compounding a problem of his own making.

“In five Assembly elections turnout has never exceeded 50 per cent and, while the public may support the principal of local decision-making, there is very little evidence to suggest any great affection for the Assembly itself.”

Saying a significant amount of work remained to be done to increase engagement in the work carried out in Cardiff Bay, Mr Davies called on his Assembly colleagues to work together rather than cling to political divisions.

“If an institution as embedded as the European Union can be swept aside by the prevailing wind of public opinion, then it’s crazy to think that the Welsh Assembly would withstand it,” he said.

But a spokesman for the first minister refuted Mr Davies’ claims the Welsh Government had not worked with pro-Brexit colleagues following the referendum result, saying: "The narrative the Welsh Tories want to develop simply isn't borne out by the facts."