Dafydd Elis-Thomas won’t stand at next Assembly election
Dafydd Elis-Thomas, who has represented Meirionnydd almost continiously as an MP and later Assembly Member since the 1970s, has decided that he will not stand again at next year’s Senedd election.
The current Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism stood as a Plaid Cymru member at elections but left the party soon after his re-election in 2016 in order to join the current Labour Government.
He told Radio Cymru this morning that after a period of reflection during this time, he has realised that there are other ways to serve society.
“I have seen the value during this period of working in a different way. There’s more to being a good citizen than being an elected politician for more than 40 years,” he said.
“And since I have reached that period of representing Meirionnydd at least for 40 years, it wouldn’t make sense for me to stand in an election knowing that I would be 78 by the end of the next assembly term.”
Mabon ap Gwynfor is the candidate chosen by Plaid Cymru to challenge for the seat.
Mabon ap Gwynfor said: “Next year’s election in Dwyfor Meirionnydd will be very different without Dafydd as a candidate.
“However, as Plaid Cymru’s candidate I look forward to campaigning with the party members and discussing issues that concern the good people of Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and fighting to ensure that Plaid Cymru retain this seat, and take these values back to the Senedd.”
Responding to the news, Dwynfor-Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville-Roberts tweeted: “I’m thankful to Dafydd Elis-Thomas for his service while representing the communities of Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Nant Conwy as an Assembly Member and Member of Parliament.”
‘Service’
Dafydd Elis-Thomas was elected the Member of Parliament for the Merioneth constituency between 1974 and 1983, and the Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituency from 1983 to 1992. He was leader of Plaid Cymru between 1984–1991 and became Plaid Cymru’r first member of the House of Lords in 1992.
He was then elected to the Welsh Assembly in 1999, representing the Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituency until the 2007 election, and then the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency. He held the position of Presiding Officer from the Assembly’s inception in 1999 until 2011.
He left Plaid Cymru in October 2016, but remained an Independent member and in November 2017 was appointed as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport.
He also served as President of Bangor University between 2000 and 2017.
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As the new Assembly Election Rules don’t allow members of the house of Lords, or County Councillor’s to sit as Assembly Members,
Dafydd needed to make a choice between the House of Lords and the Assembly.
I suspect the new rules may have been formulated with Lord Dafydd and Councillor Neil MacEvoy in mind.
I suspect that Neil would chose to stay in the Assembly and step down s a Councillor.
The official explanations can be found here:
https://www.assembly.wales/en/abthome/role-of-assembly-how-it-works/Pages/AssemblyReformFAQs.aspx
You’re probably right. but DE-T must surely have calculated that his future as an AM was now in any event pretty uncertain. He burned his boats with Plaid and then voted with Labour; but he never formally joined them, opting to remain as an independent member. So had he opted to stand again next year, his prospects for election would have depended entirely on the extent of his personal vote. Not many politicians are individually so popular that they can reckon on a solid chance of winning on that basis alone. I suspect that he realized his time was effectively… Read more »
Same for Eluned Morgan
it’s amazing the extent they’re prepared to go to to try and exclude Neil Mc.
He doesn’t have to be excluded, because he can choose. As a local political party in west Cardiff they seem to be fairly well established by now, holding all the council seats in Fairwater and one in Ely. And Neil McEvoy’s established a wider profile as an AM.
Opportunity, surely, for him to focus on building the WNP’s national role? IThe party occupies a political space which no other party quite fills, and has shown an ability to reach an electorate to which Plaid often struggles to relate.
And the more plurality of choice in politicak programmes the better!
Making the WNP all the more needed, the great hope being that it will bring all lobbying to a halt. eg Leslie Griffith’s scheme, of which 95% of Welsh people have never heard and she’s sneaking it through the covid fog.
Good job you got fog lights and saw that scam for what it is
I saw the light via Jac’s blog.
See Jac o The North blog: who’s land?
I’ve not heard of it, at least as far as I know, so the scheme may be working. 😉
Please can you explain ?
Far better, please read todays Jac o the North ‘ This land…………..’.
Teyrnged caboledig i waith a chyfraniad Dafydd i fywyd Cymru ers y 70au cynnar. Cytuno gyda’r erthygl yn llwyr – 100%. Mae’n debyg y bydd ei waith yn parhau trwy sawl cyfrwng arall. Diolch iddo am ei lafur a’i fwriad – er bod ambell i safbwynt wedi bod yn dadleuol!