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See also: | List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history
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Events from the year 2024 in Wales.
The first minister of Wales is the leader of the Welsh Government and keeper of the Welsh Seal. The first minister chairs the Welsh Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Welsh Government policy. Additional functions of the first minister include promoting and representing Wales in an official capacity, at home and abroad, and responsibility for constitutional affairs, as they relate to devolution and the Welsh Government.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Darren David Millar is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Clwyd West since 2007.
Welsh independence is the political movement advocating for Wales to become a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom.
Lynne Neagle is a Welsh Labour & Co-operative politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Education since 2024. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, Neagle has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for the constituency of Torfaen since the Senedd was established in 1999.
The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language is a member of the Cabinet in the Welsh Government. The office has been vacant since July 2024. The economy portfolio was put under the responsibility of Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport, Ken Skates, by First Minister Vaughan Gething in July 2024, following the resignation of the previous officeholder Jeremy Miles, in the lead up to Gething announcing his own resignation.
Humphrey Vaughan ap David Gething is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party politician who is currently serving as First Minister of Wales and leader of Welsh Labour since 2024, making him the first black leader of any European country. Gething previously served as the Minister for Health and Social Services from 2016 to 2021 and Minister for the Economy from 2021 to 2024. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2011.
Mark Drakeford is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2018 to 2024. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018 and Minister for Health and Social Services from 2013 to 2016. Drakeford was first elected as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Cardiff West in 2011 and is considered to be on the soft left of Labour.
Rhun ap Iorwerth is a Welsh journalist and politician who has served as the Leader of Plaid Cymru since June 2023. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ynys Môn since 2013.
Lee Waters is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who served as Deputy Minister for Climate Change from 2021 to 2024. He has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Llanelli since 2016.
Hannah Blythyn is a Welsh politician who served as the Minister for Social Partnership in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024. She was previously the Environment Minister from 2017 to 2018 and the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government from 2018 to 2021. A member of Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party, she has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn since 2016.
The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd. It was the sixth devolved general election since the Senedd was established in 1999. The election was held alongside the Scottish Parliament election, English local elections, London Assembly and mayoral election and the Hartlepool by-election.
In the Senedd, the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the Official Opposition, the largest political party that is not in the Welsh Government. The Leader of the Opposition leads and appoints members of the Shadow Cabinet and as such is sometimes styled as the Shadow First Minister of Wales.
The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024. Thirty-two seats were up for election in Wales as the general election occurred after the recently completed boundary review took effect. The Labour Party won a landslide victory of Welsh MPs, gaining six seats for a total of 27. Both Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats gained one seat each, taking them to four seats and one seat respectively. The Conservatives lost all thirteen seats they had held previously, leaving the party without Westminster representation from Wales for the first time since 2001.
Events from the year 2023 in Wales.
The February–March 2024 Welsh Labour leadership election took place between February and March 2024 to select Mark Drakeford's successor as leader of Welsh Labour, who in turn would become First Minister of Wales. Drakeford announced his resignation and retirement on 13 December 2023, five years after his election. Voting began in February 2024 with the new leader announced on 16 March 2024. Vaughan Gething won the election with 51.7% of the vote. The next scheduled Senedd election is due on or before 7 May 2026.
A leadership election will take place to select Vaughan Gething's successor as leader of Welsh Labour, who in turn will become First Minister of Wales. Gething announced his resignation on 16 July 2024, four months after his election. On 20 July Welsh Labour officials agreed a timeline for the election, with a new leader scheduled to be in place on 14 September.
The Gething government is the Labour-led government of Wales formed on 21 March 2024 following the appointment of Vaughan Gething as First Minister on 20 March 2024.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople in the Senedd on 27 June 2023 after he was elected unopposed to succeed Adam Price as party leader on 16 June. He reshuffled his frontbench team on 6 June 2024 to prepare for the next Senedd election following the passage of a motion of no confidence in First Minister Vaughan Gething.
In June 2024, Vaughan Gething, first minister of Wales and leader of Welsh Labour, faced a non-binding vote of no-confidence in him as First Minister, tabled by the Welsh Conservatives, which he lost by a margin of 29 votes to 27 but did not resign at the time. Following mounting criticism over a campaign donation of £200,000 from an unrepentant criminal businessman, and the resignation of four cabinet ministers, on 16 July 2024 Gething announced his resignation as First Minister. His resignation will formally take effect when his successor is elected.