Frontbench Team of Ieuan Wyn Jones | |
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![]() Frontbench Team of the National Assembly for Wales | |
May 2011–March 2012 | |
![]() Jones' official portrait, 2011 | |
Date formed | 25 May 2011 |
Date dissolved | 15 March 2012 |
People and organisations | |
Leader | Ieuan Wyn Jones |
Member party | |
Status in legislature | Opposition party 11 / 60 (18%) |
History | |
Legislature term(s) | 4th National Assembly for Wales |
Predecessor | Shadow Cabinet of Ieuan Wyn Jones (2007) [lower-alpha 1] |
Successor | Frontbench Team of Leanne Wood |
Ieuan Wyn Jones, the leader of Plaid Cymru, formed his frontbench team [lower-alpha 2] of party spokespeople in the National Assembly for Wales on 25 May 2011 after the dissolution of his party's coalition government with Rhodri Morgan and Carwyn Jones' Welsh Labour following the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election. Jones had previously led a shadow cabinet before entering coalition from 2000 to 2007, when his party had served as the Official Opposition since the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election.
At the 2011 assembly election, Plaid Cymru's share of seats in the assembly fell from 15 to 11 seats to make it the third-largest party in the assembly. The Welsh Conservatives, which had served as the official opposition for the duration of the coalition government, won enough seats to supersede Plaid as the second-largest party with 14 seats and remained the official opposition after the end of the coalition. Jones announced that he would resign as Plaid leader in the first half of the assembly term and on 15 March 2012 Leanne Wood won a leadership election to succeed him as leader before forming a new frontbench team.
Ieuan Wyn Jones was elected president of Plaid Cymru in 2000 following the resignation of the previous president Dafydd Wigley on grounds of ill health. At the time, Plaid Cymru was the Official Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales, so Jones formed a shadow cabinet. After the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election, Jones engaed in coalition talks with the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Welsh Conservatives to end Rhodri Morgan's Welsh Labour minority government. After these talks broke drown, Jones entered talks with Labour and in July Plaid Cymru formed a coalition government, with Jones becoming Morgan's deputy first minister. Plaid continued to serve in coalition with Labour after Morgan resigned and was succeeded by Carwyn Jones in 2009, with Ieuan Wyn Jones remaining as deputy first minister.
At the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election, Plaid Cymru share of seats fell from 15 to 11 seats and it lost its place as the second-largest party to the Welsh Conservatives, which won 14 seats and remained the Official Opposition, having gained that status after Plaid joined the government in 2007. After the election, Labour did not renew its coalition with Plaid Cymru and instead formed a minority government. As it was not the Official Opposition, Plaid Cymru did not form the new Welsh Shadow Cabinet, though it could appoint a frontbench team of party spokespeople like other minor opposition parties in the assembly.
Jones formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople on 25 May 2011. [2] Jones appointed himself as the spokesperson for finance and the constitution. Jocelyn Davies became the Plaid Cymru Group business manager and also its chief whip and the spokesperson for planning. The other appointments included Elin Jones as spokesperson for health, Simon Thomas as spokesperson for spokesperson for education, higher education and skills, Alun Ffred Jones as spokesperson for business, enterprise, technology and science, Leanne Wood as spokesperson for housing and regeneration, Rhodri Glyn Thomas as spokesperson for Europe, local government, communities and transport, Dafydd Elis-Thomas as spokesperson for environment and energy, Bethan Jenkins as spokesperson for heritage, Welsh language and sport, Lindsay Whittle as spokesperson for social services, children and equal opportunities, and Llyr Gruffydd as spokesperson for rural affairs (inc. agriculture, animal health and welfare). [2]
On 13 May 2011, Jones announced that he would resign as the leader of Plaid Cymru sometime in the first half of the 4th assembly term which would end in 2016 following its disappointing performance at the 2011 assembly election. [3] [4] In October 2011, Jones announced that a leadership election would be held on 15 March 2012 to elect his successor. [5] By December 2011, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Elin Jones, Leanne Wood and Simon Thomas had all declared their intention to stand for the leadership. [6] Thomas withdrew from the race in February 2012 and on 15 March 2012 Wood defeated Jones and Elis-Thomas and was elected the new leader of Plaid Cymru. [7] [8] She formed a new frontbench team on 21 March 2012. [9] [10] [11]
Plaid Cymru is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
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Ieuan Wyn Jones is a Welsh politician who was the Deputy First Minister in the Welsh Government from 2007 to 2011. He was the Member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Ynys Môn constituency from 1999 to 2013, and he was also leader of Plaid Cymru from 2000 to 2012. Jones served as Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn constituency from 1987 to 2001, when he retired to focus on his work in the Welsh Assembly. In 2007, Jones was named Wales' "Politician of the Year" by the BBC Wales am.pm programme. He resigned from the Welsh Assembly on 20 June 2013. In 2017 he unsuccessfully sought to return to the House of Commons for his former constituency.
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The 2012 Plaid leadership election was held following the resignation of Ieuan Wyn Jones following the 2011 Assembly Elections. Following the election Jones originally stated that he would resign in the first half of the Assembly term. Nominations officially opened on 3 January 2012.
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Dafydd Wigley became Leader of the Opposition and Shadow First Secretary of Wales after the creation of the National Assembly for Wales on 12 May 1999, following the first assembly election held on 6 May. Members of his shadow cabinet were elected by Plaid Cymru's assembly members and announced on 18 May.
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.
Rod Richards, the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople on 13 May 1998. Richards had led his party into the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election after being elected as leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in 1998.
Mike German, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Group in the National Assembly for Wales, formed his second frontbench team of party spokespeople on 8 May 2003 after the dissolution of his party's coalition government with Rhodri Morgan's Welsh Labour following the 2003 National Assembly for Wales election. Richards had already formed a frontbench team before entering coalition, when his party became an opposition party after the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election before forming the coalition with Labour in October 2000.
Mike German, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Group in the National Assembly for Wales, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople on 13 May 1999. German had led his party into the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election after being elected as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Group in 1998. This was his first frontbench team in the assembly, with it dissolving after the party entered government in October 2000. He formed a second frontbench team after his party returned to opposition in May 2003.
Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, formed her frontbench team of party spokespeople in the National Assembly for Wales on 11 December 2008 after she was elected to succeed Mike German as party leader on 8 December. She reshuffled her frontbench team after the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election before her party's seat share was reduced from five to one at the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election, with Williams becoming the party's sole assembly member (AM).
Nick Bourne, the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the National Assembly for Wales, formed his frontbench team of party spokespeople between 18 August and 25 August 1999 after he was elected unopposed to succeed Rod Richards as group leader on 18 August, having already served as acting leader since 11 August. He made a minor reshuffle to his frontbench team in 2000 and made further changes to the team after the 2003 and 2007 National Assembly elections. Bourne's party became the official opposition after the 2007 Welsh government formation in July 2007, with Bourne leading a shadow cabinet as the leader of the opposition.