Council leader wants to stand for Labour in Senedd elections
Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter
The leader of Cardiff Council has confirmed that he will be putting his name forward for consideration as a Labour candidate in the next Senedd election.
Cllr Huw Thomas refused to say whether or not he would stand in the 2026 Senedd election when asked in September 2024.
All four Labour constituency members of the Senedd in Cardiff have ruled themselves out of the running.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Cllr Thomas what his plans were for next year’s elections
Cllr Thomas, who was attending a topping out ceremony for a new block of council flats in Grangetown, said: “I will be putting my name forward for consideration, yes.”
Splott
Cllr Thomas became the youngest leader of Cardiff Council in May 2017 at the age of 31.
Originally from Aberystwyth, the ward councillor for Splott was first elected to the local authority in 2012.
The current constituency member of the Senedd for Cardiff West, Mark Drakeford, is best known for leading Wales as the First Minister during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Drakeford, who currently serves as the Welsh Government’s cabinet secretary for finance and Welsh language, has said he will not be running for re-election.
Vaughan Gething’s time as First Minister was short lived.
The current constituency member of the Senedd for Cardiff South and Penarth quit four months into the job following pressure over donations he received in the Welsh Labour leadership contest.
Mr Gething announced in September 2024 that he will not seek re-election in 2026.
Jenny Rathbone
The other two constituency members of the Senedd in Cardiff, Jenny Rathbone for Cardiff Central and Julie Morgan for Cardiff North have also announced that they won’t seek re-election.
Ms Rathbone, who has served as an MS since 2011, sits on the climate change, environment and rural affairs committee and the public accounts committee.
Ms Morgan has also been an MS since 2011. Over the years, she has been on a number of committees and served as the deputy health minister at one point.
Before her time in Cardiff Bay, she also served as a politician in Westminster for 13 years after being elected as the MP for Cardiff North in 1997.
The Senedd will undergo a number of major changes next year.
When people go to the polls in May 2026, they will be using a new voting system and there will be 16 new constituencies.
On top of this, the Senedd will be expanded to 96 members instead of the 60 that currently sit and anyone standing for election must live in Wales.
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The Tippex Kid
Will he have to stand down as council leader if elected to the Senedd? I certainly don’t like the idea of my council leader trying to split his time like this.
Clare Thomas was a very vocal supporter of Cardiff parkway development in east cardiff. There was a desperate need for office space and a train station. There is a such a desperate need that um, a vacant office space in cardiff city centre at the junction of newport road and city road is to demolished and rebuilt as student accommodation. Wow, there is a real need for office space in Cardiff. And forget about the train station in East Cardiff. The developer was given planning permission to build 15 storey office towers in East Cardiff to cover 3/5ths of the… Read more »
Does not bode well for us up north, less Cardiff more Cymru…
The need is for “Instagrammable” Grade A office space. The building on Newport and City was not even close to modern standards.
They will demolish the building any way. If there’s a demand for grade a office space, why are they building student accommodation?
Because there’s a demand for student accommodation. That market is also changing, students no longer see a stint in a crumbling, freezing, damp, mushroom and rat infested family home as a rite of passage. They now also want Instagrammable digs from where they can livestream a daily workout and share enviable pics of sundowner bubbles on the roof terrace, all now essential to cultivating their online brand that will make or break their post-uni lives.
And that’s good news for everyone else because with them in high-rises, those family homes can be refurbished and return to family use.
Your last sentence is spot on. There is so much vacant and crumbly property in Cardiff and elsewhere in Wales that should be upgraded, refurbished, repurposed and made available to buyers and renters. It should revive parts of Cardiff, Swansea and other uni towns that have been regularly trashed by generations of students passing through.
There is a need for student accommodation. But cheap accommodation. That is why the students stay in whatever accommodation they can get for their money. These Instagram able student digs are for the overseas and richers students, not those maxed out on their student loans.
This is the Klarna generation. They want it all now and will pay for it later.
They are maxed out on their student loans. They can’t get any more money and they certainly can’t afford to pay for these high tech grade a student digs.
I am confused. So what you are saying there is no real demand for Instagramable grade a office space. So why did you feel the need to try and correct my post?
The demand is for both, but clearly City Road with its incredible array of great value international dining opportunities is more appropriate for high quality student digs than high quality offices which need to impress private jet owning c-level executives and global investors as well as potential new recruits.
With your point on the vast array of food restaurants, city centre location and the close proximity of a mainline station, you just made the business case for an office building. So. No, there is no demand for office space in the capital city. And neither should Cardiff Parkway go ahead and certainly without the train station coming first.
It’s a half hour walk to the mainline station.
Its a shorter journey to the train station via bus and queen street connection. Without a train station, east Cardiff is over 45 minutes bus journey to the city centre.
Flagship grade A offices need to be a couple of minutes walk from a mainline station or in a “iconic” location still reasonably accessible by a regional rail connection such as a tram. CP only makes any sense with a railway station.
The developer can fill up 3/5ths of the site before having to consider building the train station. So who will come to this CP business park?
Tenants that will contractually expect the station to appear.
I just looked out of my window and it was an unbelievable sight. A little pink piglet with white little wings just flew past. Who knew.