This article's subject stood for re-election to the British House of Commons on 4 July. This article may be out of date during and after this period. |
Ben Lake | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Ceredigion Preseli Ceredigion (2017-2024) | |
Assumed office 8 June 2017 | |
Preceded by | Mark Williams |
Majority | 14,789 (31.9%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Ben Morgan Lake 22 January 1993 Glangwili General Hospital,Carmarthen,Carmarthenshire,Wales [1] |
Political party | Plaid Cymru |
Alma mater | Trinity College,Oxford |
Ben Morgan Lake [2] (born 22 January 1993) is a Plaid Cymru politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ceredigion Preseli,formerly Ceredigion,since 2017. [3]
Lake was born in Carmarthen and brought up in Lampeter. He is the son of a police officer and a council worker. [4] He attended Ffynnonbedr Primary School and Ysgol Bro Pedr. [5] After graduating from Trinity College,Oxford,with an undergraduate degree in History and Politics,and a master's degree in Modern British and European History, [6] he became a Research Officer in the National Assembly for Wales. [7] His first language is Welsh, [8] which was seen as a key factor in his election as MP for one of the strongest Welsh-speaking constituencies in Wales. [9]
In the 2017 general election,Lake won the Ceredigion constituency,gaining the seat from Liberal Democrat Mark Williams with 11,623 votes (29.2% of the overall vote). [10] In the 2019 general election,Lake retained his seat with 15,208 votes (37.9% of the overall vote). He is currently the youngest MP in Wales,and the youngest ever elected for Plaid Cymru. [11] [12]
Lake is currently the Plaid Cymru spokesperson at Westminster for the Environment,Food &Rural Affairs,Education &Skills,Health,Communities &Local Government,Culture,Media &Sport and Constitutional Affairs. [13] Lake was appointed a member of the Welsh Affairs Committee in September 2017. [14] He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality for Women. [15] He supported Rhun ap Iorwerth in the 2018 Plaid Cymru leadership election. [16]
In December 2017,Lake was awarded the 'Politician to Watch' prize as part of the ITV Welsh Politician of the Year Awards 2017. [17] In August 2019,Lake was nominated for the MP of the Year Award,acknowledging MPs who actively work with under-represented and disadvantaged communities across the UK. [18]
Lake is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry and Tree Planting,and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara. [19] and a Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life. [20]
Plaid Cymru is a centre-left to left-wing,Welsh nationalist political party in Wales,committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. It campaigns on a platform of social democracy and civic nationalism. The party is a strong supporter of the European Union and is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA). The party holds 4 of 32 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament,12 of 60 seats in the Senedd,and 202 of 1,231 principal local authority councillors. Plaid was formed in 1925 under the name Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru and Gwynfor Evans won the first Westminster seat for the party at the 1966 Carmarthen by-election.
Cynog Glyndwr Dafis is a Welsh politician and member of Plaid Cymru who served as the Member of Parliament for Ceredigion from 1992 to 2000,originally as a joint Plaid Cymru–Green Party MP until 1997 and then only as a Plaid Cymru MP until 2000. He also served as the Member of the Welsh Assembly for Mid and West Wales from 1999 to 2003. Born Cynog Glyndwr Davies at Treboeth in Swansea,Glamorganshire,Wales,he was initially a school teacher and researcher before entering politics.
Adam Robert Price is a Welsh politician who served as Leader of Plaid Cymru from September 2018 to May 2023. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr since 2016,having previously been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the same Westminster constituency from 2001 to 2010.
Hywel Williams is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arfon,previously Caernarfon,from 2001 to 2024.
Ceredigion was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Created in 1536,the franchise expanded in the late 19th century and on the enfranchisement of women. Its boundaries remained virtually unchanged until 1983. From 1536 until 1885 the area had two seats:a county constituency (Cardiganshire) comprising the rural areas,the other the borough constituency known as the Cardigan District of Boroughs comprising a few separate towns;in 1885 the latter was abolished,its towns and electors incorporated into the former,reduced to one MP. The towns which comprised the Boroughs varied slightly over this long period,but primarily consisted of Cardigan,Aberystwyth,Lampeter and Adpar,the latter now a suburb of Newcastle Emlyn across the Teifi,in Carmarthenshire.
Mark Fraser Williams is a British politician who served as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2016 to 2017. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ceredigion constituency,between 2005 and 2017. He sat on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee,and in 2006 he became a Shadow Minister for Wales under Menzies Campbell.
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The Welsh Shadow Cabinet is formed from members of the official opposition in the Senedd,the largest party not part of the Welsh Government,to scrutinise ministers in the Welsh Cabinet. It is led by the Leader of the Opposition,who typically appoints members of the Senedd (MSs) from their party as shadow ministers with portfolios which mirror ministerial posts in the Cabinet who scrutinise ministers and can propose their own alternative policies. Other opposition parties in the Senedd also appoint frontbench teams of spokespeople who perform the same function. These are also sometimes styled as "shadow cabinets" by their parties,though unlike the Shadow Cabinet they have no official recognition. Since 2021,the Shadow Cabinet has been formed from members of the Welsh Conservatives led by Andrew RT Davies,who have alternated with Plaid Cymru as the official opposition in the Senedd since its establishment as the National Assembly for Wales in 1999.
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Ysgol Bro Pedr is a mixed middle school for pupils aged 3–19. The school is situated in Lampeter,Ceredigion,Wales. The school is a product of the amalgamation of Ysgol Gynradd Ffynonbedr primary school and Ysgol Gyfun Llanbedr Pont Steffan secondary school.
The 2018 election for the leader of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru began on 7 August. Voting closed at midnight on 27 September. Adam Price was declared the winner on 28 September,defeating the two other candidates.
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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 made gains,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 2005.
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