Janet Finch-Saunders | |
---|---|
Member of the Senedd for Aberconwy | |
Assumed office 6 May 2011 | |
Preceded by | Gareth Jones |
Majority | 3,336 (14.17%) |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 April 1958 |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse | Gareth D T Saunders [1] |
Alma mater | Llandrillo College |
Portfolio | Shadow Minister for Climate Change |
Website | http://janetfinchsaunders.org.uk/ |
Janet Elizabeth Finch-Saunders (born 1958) is a Welsh Conservative Party politician. She is the Member of the Senedd for the Aberconwy constituency. [2]
Janet previously represented the Craig-Y-Don ward on Llandudno Town Council,and Conwy County Borough Council. [3] In the 2003 Senedd election,Janet stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Wrexham and was third on the regional party list. [4] Elected in 2004,she was appointed to the Cabinet with overall responsibility for Community Safety and Public Protection matters. [5] During her time as a Councillor,Janet was Chair of the Principal Scrutiny Committee and Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group. [2] In 2004,Janet was elected as the Mayor of Llandudno,following in the footsteps of her parents. [6]
In July 2010,following the first open primary selection to be held in the target seat of Aberconwy,Janet was selected as the Conservative Senedd candidate. In January 2011,she was appointed Policy Adviser by leader of the Welsh Conservatives. In this role she advised Nick Bourne AM on policy involving local government. [7] She was subsequently elected as the Assembly Member for Aberconwy in the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election. [8]
She initiated the Cross-Party Group on Small Shops during the Fourth Assembly. [9]
In the 2016 Senedd election,she retained her seat,becoming the first person to be re-elected consecutively since the constituency's inception. [10] Janet served as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government from 2011 to 2018,before becoming the party's Shadow Minister for Social Care,Children,Young People,and Older People. [11]
During the fifth Senedd,she was the Chair of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd. [12] From July 2018 until January 2019,Finch-Saunders employed her husband as office manager. [13] In 2019,Janet was elected Chair of the Petitions Committee. [14] [15] In 2020,Janet was made the Shadow Minister for Environment,Energy and Rural Affairs. [16]
In the 2021 Senedd election,Janet held the seat with an increased majority of 3,336 and securing 41.69% of the vote. [17] In May 2021,she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Climate Change. [18]
In the Sixth Senedd,she has been a member of the Climate Change,Environment and Infrastructure Committee,the Llywydd's Committee and the Senedd Commission. She is also a member of cross party groups on the Active Travel Act,Biodiversity,Clean Air,Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency,Hospice and Palliative Care,North Wales,Older People and Aging,Renewable and Low Carbon Energy,and Small Shops. [19]
In 2022,reports emerged that she had allegedly been mistreating her office staff,who were described as being "left in tears" and she is alleged to have phoned them if she felt they had taken too long while they were on the toilet. [20] Janet Finch Saunders has the highest turnover of staff of any elected member of the Senedd. As a consequence,WalesOnline journalist,Will Hayward,now keeps a running tally of when Janet begins hiring again on the Senedd website on his X (formerly Twitter) account. [21]
Finch-Sanders lives in Llandudno and has two children with her husband,Gareth. An entrepreneur,Janet has founded a number of local businesses. [22] A keen sailor,she is also passionate about animals and marine conservation. [23]
Finch-Saunders owns 7 residential and 4 retail properties and is a trustee of a further two residential properties in Llandudno. [13]
Conwy County Borough is a county borough in the north of Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south and Denbighshire to the east. The largest settlement is Colwyn Bay,and Conwy is the administrative centre.
Helen Mary Jones is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician,who was a member of the Senedd from 1999 to 2011 and again from August 2018 until 29 April 2021.
Laura Anne Jones is a Conservative politician who has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for the South Wales East electoral region since July 2020,having previously held the same seat as an Assembly Member (AM) in the National Assembly for Wales between 2003 and 2007. Jones also served as a county councillor for the Wyesham ward in Monmouthshire County Council from 2017 to 2022.
Aberconwy is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Robin Millar,a Conservative.
Elin Jones is a Welsh politician who has served as the Llywydd of the Senedd since 2016. A member of Plaid Cymru,Jones has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ceredigion since 1999.
There are four types of elections in Wales:elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom,elections to the devolved Senedd,local elections to community councils and the 22 principal areas,and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. In addition there are by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day,which is conventionally a Thursday. Three of these four types of elections are held after fixed periods;the exception is UK general elections,the timing of which is at the discretion of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Senedd elections may be postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.
Aberconwy is a constituency of the Senedd. First created for the former Assembly's 2007 election. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the North Wales electoral region,which elects four additional members,in addition to nine constituency members,to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Gareth Jones OBE is a Welsh politician. He was a member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Conwy from 1999 until 2003 when he lost by 72 votes. He sought a successful re-election to the newly created Aberconwy constituency in 2007 before retiring in 2011. He was also Leader of Conwy County Borough Council,from 2017 to 2019,and a Llandudno town councillor representing the Craig-y-Don ward. He was formerly a member of Plaid Cymru,but left in 2017 after attempting to form a council administration in Conwy containing Welsh Conservatives,which the national party would not allow. He ran an independent administration of the council until 2019,when the Conservatives took control of the council.
Nick Ramsay is a British politician who served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Monmouth from 2007 to 2021. Originally a member of the Welsh Conservatives,he served as Shadow Minister of Finance under Conservative Leader in the Senedd,Paul Davies,but lost the position in January 2021 under the new leadership of Andrew RT Davies. Ramsay sat as an Independent member before unsuccessfully seeking reelection as an Independent in the 2021 Senedd election.
Darren David Millar is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Clwyd West since 2007.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats are a branch of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats that operates in Wales. The party is led by Jane Dodds,who served as MP for Brecon and Radnorshire from August to December 2019,and MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has 1 elected member in the Senedd and no Welsh seats in the UK House of Commons,but does have several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councilors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections,up 10 from 2017.
The 2011 National Assembly for Wales election was an election for the National Assembly. The poll was held on 5 May 2011 and decided the incumbency for all the Assembly's seats. It was the fourth election for seats in the National Assembly for Wales,and the second election taken under the rules of the Government of Wales Act 2006.
Paul Windsor Davies is a British politician who currently serves as Member of the Senedd (MS) for Preseli Pembrokeshire,a position he has held since 2007 election. He gained the seat from Labour and was re-elected in May 2011,May 2016 and again in May 2021.
Suzy Davies is a Welsh Conservative Party politician,who served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales West from 2011 to 2021. She was elected first on the Welsh Conservatives party list for the region in the 2011 election.
Siân Gwenllian is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician who has represented the constituency of Arfon in the Senedd since 2016. She currently holds the seat with a majority of 8,642 votes.
Caroline Yvonne Jones is a Welsh politician who was a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales West from 2016 to 2021.
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.
Natasha Asghar is a Welsh Conservative Party politician who represents South Wales East in the Senedd since the 2021 Senedd election. Her father Mohammad Asghar represented the same constituency until his death in 2020. She is the first female ethnic minority member of the Senedd. She was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2021. She stood for the Conservative Party's nomination for Mayor of London in the 2024 mayoral election,but was not shortlisted.
Joel James is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for the region of South Wales Central since the 2021 Senedd election.