For the British radio drama director and producer, see Kirsty Williams (drama). For the member of the Kansas House of Representatives, see Kristey Williams.
Former Welsh Liberal Democrat politician and former Minister for Education
Victoria Kirstyn WilliamsCBE (born 19 March 1971) is a Welsh politician who served as Minister for Education in the Welsh Government from 2016 to 2021.[lower-alpha 1] She was a Member of the Senedd (MS) from 1999 to 2021. She previously served as the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from December 2008 to May 2016 and subsequently from June 2017 to November 2017 in an acting capacity.[1]
Williams was born in Taunton,Somerset to Welsh parents,whilst her librarian father was working there.[2][3] After moving to Liverpool,[3] in 1974 the family moved to the village of Bynea,Carmarthenshire,where she grew up.[2][3]
She was elected as an Assembly Member of the National Assembly for Wales for the constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire in May 1999. In her first term she became her party's health spokesman. She also served as Chair of the Welsh Assembly Health and Social Care Committee between 1999 and 2003.[4]
In the 2006 Welsh Yearbook Political Awards,she was voted "Member to Watch 2006"[5] In a poll at the end of 2006,Williams was voted "Sexiest Female Liberal Democrat" on Stephen Tall's Liberal Goes a Long Way blog.[6]
On 8 December 2008,Williams became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats,having defeated Cardiff Central Assembly Member Jenny Randerson.[7]
In 2011,as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats,she agreed to support the Welsh Labour Government's 2012–2013 £14.5bn Budget on the basis,amongst other things,of securing the Welsh Pupil Premium:an extra £20m to spend on the education of the poorest pupils.[8] Teaching Unions welcomed the deal,with ATL Cymru director Philip Dixon saying,"Our children are our future and investment in them is investment for all. Labour and the Lib Dems deserve credit for ensuring that our children,especially those in most need,will now get a better start in life."[9]
In 2013,Williams and the Welsh Liberal Democrats more than doubled investment for the Welsh Pupil Premium in exchange for abstaining on the Welsh government's annual budget.[10]
Williams has gained a reputation for campaigning on health issues. In 2012,the Welsh Government agreed to take forward the Welsh Liberal Democrat idea of a Health Technology Fund to allow patients better access to innovative treatments.[11] The following year,the Welsh Liberal Democrats achieved a further £9.5m investment into the Health Technology Fund as well as the establishment of a £50m Intermediate Care Fund to drive integration of health,social services and housing.[12]
Williams has been part of a long-running ‘More Nurses’campaign for a law requiring minimum staffing levels for nurses in Welsh hospitals. Kirsty Williams was successful in a legislative ballot (a bill proposed by an individual member is rare) on 11 December 2013,and given leave to proceed with her Bill In 2014,Nurse Staffing Levels Bill.[14] It was passed and became law in Wales on 21 March 2016.[15] She was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in 2016.[16]
In the elections to the Welsh Assembly on 5 May 2016 Williams retained her Brecon and Radnorshire seat with an increased majority. However,as the sole Liberal Democrat representative in the new Assembly,she stood down as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats the day after the election.[17] On the first day of plenary she voted with the Government on the appointment of the First Minister.[18] First Minister Carwyn Jones appointed her to the Welsh Cabinet as Education Secretary;31 seats are needed for a majority in the Welsh Assembly,Labour had 29,so Williams joining with the Labour administration created a working majority.
On 16 June 2017,Williams once again became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats,on an acting basis,after the defeat of the previous leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats,Mark Williams MP,in the 2017 general election.[1]
She is at the forefront of curriculum reform in Wales and introduced the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Bill on 6 July 2020.[19]
On 27 October 2020 she announced that she would not be seeking re-election in the 2021 Senedd election,saying that she was "looking forward to spending more time with my family and I remain committed to my role in Brecon and Radnorshire and look forward to continuing to campaign with my successor to ensure Brecon and Radnorshire returns a Welsh Liberal Democrat voice."[20]
Notes
1 2 Known as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills until 13 Dec 2018
Related Research Articles
Richard Arthur Lloyd Livsey, Baron Livsey of Talgarth was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire from 1985 to 1992, and again from 1997 to 2001.
In British politics, a Lib–Lab pact is a working arrangement between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.
Brecon and Radnorshire is a county constituency in Wales of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1918, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. The constituency is represented by Fay Jones of the Conservative Party, who defeated incumbent Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats at the 2019 general election.
Michael James German, Baron German, OBE is a British politician, serving currently as a member of the House of Lords and formerly as a member of the National Assembly for Wales for the South Wales East region. He was leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2008. In 1996, he was awarded an OBE for his public and political service.
Jennifer Elizabeth Randerson, Baroness Randerson is a Welsh Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is a former junior minister in the Wales Office serving in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. Prior to her peerage she was an Assembly Member for Cardiff Central from 1999 to 2011 when she served in the Welsh Labour-Lib Dem administration of the 2000–2003 Welsh Assembly Government.
Peter Malcolm Black is a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician, and was a Member of the Welsh Assembly for the South Wales West Region between 1999 and 2016.
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. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for UK general elections, all four types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the UK parliament can occur in certain situations, with Senedd elections being postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.
The Welsh Conservatives is the branch of the United Kingdom Conservative Party that operates in Wales. At Westminster elections, it is the second-most popular political party in Wales, having obtained the second-largest share of the vote at every general election since 1931. In Senedd elections, the Conservatives are currently the second-most supported party but have at times been third. They hold 14 of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, and 16 of the 60 seats in the Senedd.
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.
Welsh Young Liberals is the successor to what was previously "Myfyrwyr a Ieuenctid y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru – Liberal Democrat Youth and Students Wales” and constitutes the youth wing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Its membership is open to any member of the Liberal Democrats living, working or studying in Wales provided they are under 26 years of age and/or in full/part-time education above that age.
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.
William "Bill" Powell is a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician. He has been a Powys County Councillor since 2004, and was a member of the Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for the Mid and West Wales Region from 2011 to 2016.
Eluned Parrott is a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician. She was an Assembly Member (AM) of the National Assembly for Wales between 2011 and 2016. She is a Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales.
The third Jones government was a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition government formed after the results of the 2016 general election in Wales. On 14 October 2016, Dafydd Elis-Thomas left Plaid Cymru in order to support the coalition government and to give them a ruling majority; he later sat as an independent in the Senedd. The government was replaced by the Drakeford government on 13 December 2018, following the resignation of Carwyn Jones as First Minister the previous day.
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.
Jane Dodds is a Welsh politician who has served as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats since 2017. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire at the seat's 2019 by-election, but was an MP for only three months before being defeated in the general election later the same year. In May 2021, Dodds was elected to the Senedd on the Mid and West Wales list. She is the only Liberal Democrat MS in the Senedd.
A by-election was held in the UK Parliament constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire on 1 August 2019 after Chris Davies, who had held the seat for the Conservatives since the 2015 general election, was unseated by a recall petition. The by-election was won by Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on 12 December 2019 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, including the 40 Welsh seats.
The 2008 Welsh Liberal Democrats leadership election took place in the autumn of 2008 following the resignation of Mike German. Two Assembly Members contested the leadership Jenny Randerson and Kirsty Williams.
James Evans is a Welsh Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Brecon and Radnorshire since the 2021 Senedd election. He won the seat from the Welsh Liberal Democrats, becoming the first MS for this constituency from the Welsh Conservative Party.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
