This is a list of women who are or have been members of the Senedd.
The Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru) has sixty seats. At each election the Senedd has returned some of the highest rates of female representation in the world. At the 2003 election 30 women and 30 men were elected. Following a by-election in 2006 there were 31 women and 29 men who all served until the 2007 election. [1]
Following the May 2021 election there are 26 women and 34 men.
Date | Female ♀ | Male ♂ |
---|---|---|
1999 election | 24 | 36 |
2000 [note 1] | 25 | 35 |
2003 election | 30 | 30 |
2006 [note 2] | 31 | 29 |
2007 election | 28 | 32 |
2010 [note 3] | 29 | 31 |
2011 election | 25 | 35 |
2016 election | 25 | 35 |
2017 [note 4] | 26 | 34 |
2018 [note 5] | 27 | 33 |
2019 [note 6] | 28 | 32 |
2020 [note 7] | 29 | 31 |
2021 election | 26 | 34 |
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.
A member of the Senedd is a representative elected to the Senedd. There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd constituencies, and twenty to represent the five electoral regions of the Senedd in Wales.
The Senedd, officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and Senedd Cymru in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees to certain taxes, and scrutinises the Welsh Government. It is a bilingual institution, with both Welsh and English being the official languages of its business. From its creation in May 1999 until May 2020, the Senedd was officially known as the National Assembly for Wales and was often simply called the Welsh Assembly.
Simon George Thomas is a Welsh former politician who was a member of Plaid Cymru. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Ceredigion from 2000 to 2005, and an Assembly Member in the National Assembly for Wales representing the Mid and West Wales list between 2011 and 2018.
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.
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).
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.
Mid and West Wales is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects twelve members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in the 1999 Welsh Assembly election, when the National Assembly for Wales was created.
South Wales East is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, when the National Assembly for Wales was created.
Welsh independence is the political movement advocating for Wales to become a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom.
Mohammad Asghar, known as Oscar, was a Welsh politician who was a Member of the Senedd for South Wales East. He was a member of the Welsh Conservatives, and previously of Welsh Labour, and Plaid Cymru.
The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the Scottish Parliament election took place. This election was preceded by the previous Assembly election in 2003.
This is a list of Assembly Memberselected to the fifth National Assembly for Wales at the 2016 election. In May 2020, the representatives were renamed to Members of the Seneddin the fifth Senedd, they would be known as the fifth Senedd for the remainder of their term. From the 2021 election members would be elected under this new title of Senedd. There are a total of 60 members elected, 40 were elected from first past the post constituencies with a further 20 members being returned from five regions, each electing four AMs through mixed member proportional representation. In between elections, members of the legislature may not necessarily be of the same party or the same candidate elected in 2016.
The third Jones government was a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition government formed after 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.
This is a list of regional member changes (co-options) to the Senedd. Under the provisions of the Government of Wales Act, 1998, regional members of the Senedd who resign, die or are otherwise disqualified are replaced by the next available and willing person of their original party's list, and no by-election occurs.
Delyth Non Jewell is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician. She is a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East region. She is also the current Deputy Leader of Plaid Cymru.
Paul Davies became the Leader of the Opposition in Wales after being elected as Leader of the Welsh Conservatives on 27 June 2018 and named his Shadow Cabinet in July.
Natasha Asghar is a Welsh Conservative Party politician has served as Member of the Senedd for the South Wales East region and Shadow Minister for Transport since 2021. 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 stood for the Conservative Party's nomination for Mayor of London in the 2024 mayoral election, but was not shortlisted.