Elisabeth Jones is the Counsel General-designate for Wales, having been appointed to the role by Eluned Morgan, the First Minister of Wales, in her first government, announced on 7 August 2024. Jones was previously the legal adviser to the Senedd. [1] [2]
The secretary of state for Wales, also referred to as the Welsh secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Wales Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and deputy ministers. It is led by the first minister, usually the leader of the largest party in the Senedd, who selects ministers and deputy ministers with the approval of the Senedd. The government is responsible for tabling policy in devolved areas for consideration by the Senedd and implementing policy that has been approved by it.
Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Deputy First Minister of Wales since August 2024. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ogmore since 2016. Irranca-Davies was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ogmore from 2002 to 2016.
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.
Mair Eluned Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Ely is a Welsh Labour politician who has served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024.
David Ian Jones is a British politician and former solicitor who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Clwyd West from 2005 to 2024.
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).
Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Bridgend from 1999 to 2021.
Carl Sargeant was a Welsh politician who was the Cabinet secretaries and ministers Secretary for Communities and Children in the Welsh Government. He represented the constituency of Alyn and Deeside in the National Assembly for Wales from 2003.
A referendum on the powers of the National Assembly for Wales was held on 3 March 2011. Voters were asked whether the Assembly should have full law-making powers in the twenty subject areas where it has jurisdiction. The referendum asked the question: ‘Do you want the Assembly now to be able to make laws on all matters in the 20 subject areas it has powers for?’
The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy is a member of the Cabinet in the Welsh Government. The current officeholder is Ken Skates since July 2024. The economy portfolio was added to Skates’ existing North Wales and Transport portfolios, 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. New First Minister Eluned Morgan kept the role for Skates in her interim cabinet after she became First Minister.
Humphrey Vaughan ap David Gething is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party politician who served as First Minister of Wales from March to August 2024, and served as leader of Welsh Labour from March to July 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.
Jeremy Miles is a Welsh Labour Co-op politician, who was Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language from March to July 2024. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Counsel General for Wales from 2017 to 2021, Brexit Minister from 2018 to 2021, and the Minister for coordinating Wales’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021. Miles has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Neath since 2016.
Mark Drakeford is a Welsh politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on an interim basis since August 2024, having previously held the position from 2013 to 2016. He previously served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2018 to 2024, and as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018. He 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.
Julie James is a Welsh Labour politician who has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Swansea West since 2011. She served in the Welsh Government in various roles from 2018 to July 2024.
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 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, often referred to simply as the Welsh Office Minister, is a junior ministerial post in the Government of the United Kingdom, supporting the Secretary of State for Wales.
Ieuan Wyn Jones became Leader of the Opposition in Wales after being elected as President of Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales, on 3 August 2000. Jones had previously served in these roles in an acting capacity on the behalf of his predecessor Dafydd Wigley from December 1999 to February 2000. He formed his shadow cabinet on 9 August and, like his predecessor, appointed himself Shadow First Secretary of Wales and Shadow Assembly Secretary for Finance. Members of his shadow cabinet were initially known as shadow assembly secretaries until October 2000. From that month, members were known as shadow ministers, with Jones's titles also changing to Shadow First Minister of Wales and Shadow Minister for Finance, after a similar change was made to the names of ministerial posts in Rhodri Morgan's coalition government between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Jones's shadow cabinet was dissolved after the formation of a coalition government between Plaid Cymru and Morgan's Labour Party on 19 July 2007.
Eluned Morgan formed her government on 6 August and 7 August 2024 following her appointment as first minister of Wales on 6 August. She appointed former First Minister Mark Drakeford as her interim successor to her former role as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, and designated Elisabeth Jones as Counsel General-designate.