Ex Welsh Labour MP Beth Winter has left Your Party and will be standing for the Senedd as a ‘Community Independent’
Martin Shipton
Former Welsh Labour MP Beth Winter has announced that she will be standing as a Community Independent candidate in May’s Senedd election.
She also revealed to Nation.Cymru that she had resigned from Your Party – the left-wing party founded last year by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana whose launch has been overshadowed by factional disputes and legal threats.
Ms Winter represented Cynon Valley from 2019 until 2024. The constituency disappeared because of boundary changes and she lost a selection battle to be Labour’s candidate in the new seat of Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare against fellow MP Gerald Jones.
In a statement she said: “My heart and soul lie in these Valleys. It is my home – I grew up here, I still live here with my family, and after much thought, I’ve decided to stand in the upcoming Senedd election as a Community Independent candidate for Pontypridd, Cynon and Merthyr.
“Our Valleys have a proud working-class tradition of hard work, solidarity, and achievements like trade unions, the NHS, and worker-led projects such as Tower Colliery — proof that when organised we can take control and keep wealth in our communities.
“Today, people across the South Wales Valleys face rising bills, insecure work, poverty, and the growing threat of climate collapse. Too many families are forced to choose between heating and eating, while extreme wealth continues to grow. These injustices and inequalities aren’t inevitable. They are the result of political choices, and must be challenged.
“People are disillusioned and have lost trust in politicians. The vacuum that has emerged is being exploited by the far right. We cannot allow this to take root in our communities.
“I believe the answers lie in our Valleys. Real power doesn’t start in Cardiff Bay or Westminster, but on our streets, in workplaces, schools, local campaigns and community-run projects.
“It’s clear there’s a desire to break from establishment politics that is failing our communities. We need grassroots, community-based politics rooted in social justice, equality, peace and environmental responsibility – with real power and resources in the hands of people in Wales.
“I’ve always believed in working with people, not speaking over them. That’s how I worked as MP for Cynon Valley, keeping to my socialist principles, working alongside local people: defending workers’ rights and public services; opposing cuts wherever they come from-Westminster, Cardiff Bay, local council; celebrating all that’s wonderful about our valleys and building an alternative where the wealth is created and retained in our communities.
“I always made sure that I was visible and approachable with an open-door policy because politicians should not be separate from the communities they represent. They need to be embedded in their communities and on an equal level with people.
“This is why if elected to the Senedd I would only take a salary equal to my previous trade union employment, with the remainder made available to initiatives focused on community organising, education and training; local campaigns and community wealth building initiatives.
“Politics has to change. People deserve honesty and leaders rooted in their communities. Real change comes from community power – and that is what I would take to the Senedd. I would not be beholden to any party. I’d be free to fight for a Wales that puts people, peace and planet before profit.
“The seeds of change are already here. I’m standing to help them grow — and to be a strong, independent Voice for our Valleys in the Senedd.”
Speaking to Nation.Cymru, Ms Winter said: “I am no longer a member of Your Party. I resigned two or three weeks ago.
“I shall continue to work with fellow socialists involved in different progressive parties like the Green Party and Plaid Cymru, as I always have done. We agree on many policy positions, but my focus is very much on grassroots community activity and standing up for Wales. While Your Party was said to respect the nations of Britain, operationally I don’t believe that was the case.”
Well-established
When it was put to her that some people thought that by standing as an Independent candidate she could peel off votes that would otherwise go to Labour or Plaid Cymru, thus helping Reform UK, she said: “I’m very well-established in my community and have as much right to stand as anyone else. I could throw the point back to them in the same way.
“I believe my record shows that I will work for local communities. I’ll be campaigning to win a seat in the Senedd.”
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Was there ever anything to resign from?
Unless the Greens stand aside this will presumably benefit Reform.
Why would the Greens stand aside?
Provided she gets 15-16% of the vote, I don’t see how it helps Reform.
Fair play….this woman is all over the place!!!
So the widely respected Welsh socialist Beth Winter has left Your Party meanwhile the anti-vaxxer anti-migrant conspiracy crank Piers Corbyn has not only been allowed to join Your Party but he’s also standing for election to its central committee (blimey do parties on the left still have ‘central committees’?). Beth leaving certanly doesnt augur well for its prospects in Wales.
Beth, If you really care about the future of Wales as a nation you best decision is to support the one Party of Wales.
Be easy on yourself: Join Plaid Cymru.
It would be more effective use of your time.
I think the Greens would be better to join. As a PC member I’m not sure I want the die hard socialists in the party!
What is the difference between a “die hard” socialist, and a regular socialist, in your view? Just asking for a friend.
You beat me to it! Stop messing about Beth, join Plaid Cymru. We can have the luxury of arguing about doctrinal differences when we are an independent country.
Really? This is the person who spoke at the Yes rally in Carmarthen last year. She addressed every issue under the sun but when pressed on a number of times about independence, remained totally silent.
The last thing Plaid Cymru needs is an ex labour MP who’s politics belong to the nineteenth century and needs to grow.
Don’t understand your point, John Ball – Nationalism is very much a nineteenth idea.
Former Labour MP Beth Winter is standing as a Community Independent candidate in May’s Senedd election. But is this in the best interests of Wales, I ask? She is, of course, a supporter of Welsh independence, having attended a YesCymru march in 2024 – otherwise, why align herself with the movement? I know she was an advocate of further devolution to the Senedd and left the Labour Party, saying it had become “unrecognisable” and had abandoned its socialist roots – and, dare I say, Wales too – through its neo‑Conservative, anglocentric lurch to the right under Keir Starmer. She would… Read more »
You were obviously at a different Carmarthen march to me – and many others. She was called by many in the audience to explicitly refer to independence, but simply rambled on about every other “good” cause under the sun.
Ms. Winter was a bloody hard working rep for what was then Cynon Valley as local MP, and I know she would do it all over again.
Though I do wish she would take her talents and dedication to Plaid Cymru where she would be most welcomed.
The far/hard left has always been a bizarre comedy show of splinter groups. It’s very odd. Ideologies always seem to trump working together for a common goal.
If they work together for a common goal they might achieve it and discover it doesn’t work.
Otto the commentator who refuses to condemn Mandleson. Yet blames anyone left of cebter for all the ills in the uk.
You should go into comedy.
The right learned this lesson the hard way. They managed to unite all sorts of moderate and extreme factions to get into power and give the world neoliberalism that totally failed when it ended up crashing capitalism.
Now they’re staggering around totally lost without an ideology, instead grasping at any culture war straws to try and keep the conversation away from their humiliation.
Imagine believing in something so strongly all your life only to deliver it then watch it fail catastrophically. No wonder the further-to-the-left don’t want the same to happen to them by risking power.
Are the far left in the room with you now? At best these are center left political ideas, nothing more.
“Your Party” was always a joke