Trade unionist bids to become Plaid Cymru’s national Chair

Martin Shipton

A leading figure in Plaid Cymru’s trade union section Undeb has announced that she will be standing for election as the party’s national Chair.

Elin Hywel, a member of Unite who is also a Gwynedd councillor, says that although she’s on Plaid’s left wing, she wants to ensure that policy disagreements are discussed frankly between members.

According to Plaid Cymru’s constitution, the Chair takes responsibility for internal party machinery and for

representing the voice of the members. He or she chairs the influential National Executive Committee.
Under the party’s rules, the Chair cannot be an elected MS, so previous Chair Marc Jones and Deputy Chair Beca Brown stepped down after winning seats in the Senedd in May.

Long-serving party activist Carole Willis is currently Interim Chair. Nominations for a new Chair close on August 21 and the winner will be announced at the party’s annual conference in Llandudno in October.

Ms Hywel, who is the daughter of former Arfon MP Hywel Williams, is a qualified accountant who has spent over twenty years working with businesses, charities, social enterprises and communities throughout Gwynedd.

She acknowledged that Plaid Cymru’s new status as the party of government in Wales meant that it had entered a new era.

She said: “I am asking the members of Plaid Cymru to support my nomination to be the new chair of the Party, as Plaid Cymru claims its place as a confident national political force.

“There is an opportunity to develop the conversation, not only about what we would like to see from Plaid Cymru, but also the kind of party we would like to build as we open a new chapter in our nation’s history.

“In a few months, we will face more key elections for our county, community and town councils. Without a doubt, as a county councillor and, should I be elected, as Chair, I will work tirelessly to ensure our best results.

“Understanding our culture and our commitment to it are fundamental to the Chair’s responsibilities. If we want to build a Wales that shares power, nurtures talent, and puts people at the heart of public life, we must ensure our party reflects those values throughout.

“As we take the next steps on our nation’s journey, Plaid Cymru needs a chair who will protect our party’s values and culture, strengthen our unity, and enable the party to thrive.”

Vision

Asked why she would make a good Chair, Ms Hywel told Nation.Cymru: “To begin with, I really enjoy chairing. I like having people in a room, putting them together, enabling people to have a voice.

“My job as Chair would be to think about how the structures of this party enable all those other members involved in decision making to think about what’s their vision, what does the administration look like, how do we actually put the stuff that we’ve been thinking about for decades into practice. How do I enable other people to think about this question, get their voices heard, get that communication working up and down across, backwards and forwards so that we’re constantly developing the party, constantly developing our vision, and feeding through to action. That’s what we really want, isn’t it?”

She said that although she was on the left, she wouldn’t align herself with any party faction: “My responsibility as Chair would be to enable conversations to happen in a useful way. My experience as a chairperson has allowed me to develop those skills. It’s not about letting go of what I believe in. It’s not about not having principles or anything like that. I can still have those. But within the responsibilities of a chairperson, it would be my responsibility to allow everyone to be heard, regardless of whether I agreed with them or not.”

Unity

It was pointed out that while the party had shown great unity during the run-up to the Senedd election and since, a point of disagreement had arisen in recent days over the decision of Enterprise Minister Adam Price to attend Farnborough Air Show, where three Israeli arms companies were showcasing their weapons.

Asked whether she would consider it her job to “smooth over” problems like that in the party, she said: “There definitely will be disagreements from time to time, but I definitely think it’s not about smoothing over. That’s not what we want to do. What we want to do is create a space where we can have the conversation. And that’s the important thing, because it’s only by enabling that space that you can move forward. And that’s really the important responsibility of a Chair, to identify those issues.

“In my opinion, the Chair needs to be a bit braver and not be scared of conflict, because you have the skill set that enables conversation to be challenging to enable people to say when they’re not happy and sometimes a little bit angry. Maybe that’s what’s necessary in a certain situation, but it’s opening up that conversation so that you can then get to the end of the conflicting parts of it, if that’s something that’s happening, and find a way forward. That’s the pattern that I’ve followed with community work, whenever I’m in a situation where there are people who might be unhappy about certain things.”

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