Leanne Wood rules out standing at next Senedd election

Emily Price 

Plaid Cymru’s former leader Leanne Wood has confirmed that she will not be standing at the next Senedd election.

Ms Wood, who represented Rhondda in the Welsh Parliament until 2021, told Nation.Cymru she had no plans to try for Plaid’s closed list in the new super-constituency of Afan Ogwr Rhondda.

The proud socialist and feminist said she still has ambition to prioritise politics – but without the constraints that come with being an elected figure.

Her greatest electoral triumph came in 2016, when she defeated Labour Cabinet Minister Leighton Andrews in Rhondda.

Previously she had sat as a regional Assembly Member for South Wales Central since 2003.

Ms Wood lost the party leadership to Adam Price in 2018 coming third in the contest, with Rhun ap Iorwerth also getting more votes.

She later lost her Rhondda seat to Labour’s Buffy Williams when she sought re-election in 2021.

Despite this, the former political figure has still enjoyed enthusiastic support from party members and she boasts a large social media following of almost 70,000.

Ms Wood now intends to expose the far right in Wales, and especially Reform, led by her old enemy Nigel Farage.

Far right

In a statement released to Nation.Cymru on Tuesday (April 2)  Ms Wood said: “I won’t be seeking a seat in the next Senedd. There are countless good reasons for this decision. One is that I have decided to prioritise politics.

“I am a socialist. A feminist. An environmentalist. An anti capitalist. And anti fascist. As an elected representative, there are constraints to pursuing the politics that comes with all of that.

“When making critiques of capitalism and proposing alternatives, or when opposing unjust wars, or challenging and calling out racism, misogyny, transphobia, the far-right or misuse or any other form of abuse of power, it can spark anger.

“Taking a stand against racism, the far-right and their British nationalist brexit project has not gone down well with some. In 2016 I predicted a rise in the far right. I have regularly talked about the links between the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s and the far-right politics of now.”

‘Liberating’

She added: “I also found a strong backlash when taking a stand against misogyny, sexual assault and domestic abuse. The freedom to speak openly about these issues and to work at a community level, improving economic prospects and wealth opportunities for our valleys has been liberating.

“There are opportunities to do good work and to challenge the ethos of capitalism  – which drags along racism, misogyny and the far right – in the work I do now in community energy and community wealth building.

“While there are still constraints and differences of viewpoints, they are worked through in a spirit of openness, trust and respect.

“With the far-right expected to win another round of seats in the next Senedd, the toxic atmosphere in that Siambr is likely to only get worse.

“I wish all the politicians and candidates who are running for election all the very best. I’m sure I’ll be hassling them over some issues very soon!

“I hope they can change the system and the culture, inside and outside the Senedd. Our country, our democracy and our politics deserves so much better than this.”

Ashamed

Ms Wood is one of the few politicians to successfully put down Farage whilst taking part in a televised leadership debate during the general election campaign in 2015.

She took him to task for comments about so-called health tourists with HIV, telling him, “This kind of scaremongering is dangerous.

“It’s dangerous, divides communities and it creates stigma to people who are ill, and I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Last week, Ms Wood hit the headlines when she was “kicked out” of a Reform UK meeting in Penygraig which she attended to “express concerns” on behalf of the community.

Recently she has appeared on platforms with former Cynon Valley Labour MP Beth Winter.

This has prompted speculation that Ms Winter might be planning to join Plaid and stand as a Senedd candidate – but that hasn’t happened.

The two former politicians say they have joined forces to see what can be done to improve conditions for people living in the valleys.

They recently held three assemblies in Merthyr Tydfil, Cynon Valley and Rhondda which were well attended by a cross section of local people and organisations.

Ms Wood said: “We thought that we could pool our experience of the political system and see if we could bring people together to build community wealth. Previous economic strategies have failed the valleys. It’s time for a new approach.

“For us, that means taking the learning from Cymunedoli – the network of 45 community businesses, coops, social enterprises that has been created in Gwynedd, to create new community-owned businesses that can bring in a long-term profit, providing security for our communities and resilience to future cuts.

“We have too few community wealth building businesses in the valleys and we wanted to do something about that.”

Beth Winter said: “These events have demonstrated that there’s a real appetite for positive change and to explore opportunities to not only generate but retain wealth in our valleys for the benefit of all.

“The knowledge and enthusiasm expressed by those who attended has been inspirational and has strengthened our hope that by working together we can achieve so much.

“We are in the process of collating the information gathered into a short report which will be shared widely. And we hope to hold more of these events as well as start to turn some of the ideas into action.”