Welsh Liberal Democrats

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Welsh Liberal Democrats
Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru
0 / 40
Senedd
1 / 60
Local government in Wales[7]
69 / 1,234
Website
www.libdems.wales Edit this at Wikidata

The Welsh Liberal Democrats (Welsh: Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru) are a branch of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats that operates in Wales. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who served as MP for Brecon and Radnorshire from August to December 2019, and MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021.[8] The party currently has 1 elected member in the Senedd and no Welsh seats in the UK House of Commons, but does have several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councilors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.

Mark Williams, then-Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, was defeated at the 2017 general election in his Ceredigion constituency by Ben Lake of Plaid Cymru, whose majority of 104 made the seat one of the most marginal in the country. The result left the party without an MP in Wales; the party and its predecessors had continuously held parliamentary seats in Wales since the formation of the Liberal Party in 1859.[9]

Organisation

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats

No. Image Name Term start Term end
1
Richard Livsey
 1988 1992
2
Alex Carlile
 1992 1997
(1)
Richard Livsey
 1997 2001
3 Lembit Öpik 17 September 2001 13 October 2007
4
Mike German
 13 October 2007 8 December 2008
5 Kirsty Williams 8 December 2008 6 May 2016
6 Mark Williams 7 May 2016 16 June 2017
(5) Kirsty Williams 16 June 2017 3 November 2017
7 Jane Dodds 3 November 2017 Incumbent

Welsh Liberal Democrat Officers

  • President of the Welsh Liberal Democrats: Tim Sly
  • Deputy President: Sam Bennett
  • Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats: Jane Dodds
  • Deputy Leader (Westminster): Christine Humphreys

Youth wing

The youth wing of the party is Welsh Young Liberals.

  • Chair: Leena Farhat & Joshua Rutty

Policy platform

The Welsh Liberal Democrats promote liberalism as their main ideology, as well as further

devolved powers for the Senedd
with the aim of establishing a federal UK.

Elected representatives

Members of the Senedd (MSs)
Member of Senedd
 Constituency or Region First elected
Jane Dodds Mid and West Wales 2021

Appointments

House of Lords

Peer Ennobled Notes
Lord German of Llanfrechfa
 2010 AM for
South Wales East
1999 – 2010
Baroness Humphreys of Llanrwst 2013 AM for
North Wales
1999 – 2001
Baroness Randerson of Roath Park
 2011 AM for
Cardiff Central
1999 – 2011
Lord Roberts of Llandudno 2004
Lord Thomas of Gresford 1996

History

Before 1945

Main article: Welsh Liberal Party

The Liberal Council for Wales was founded by

post-war British politics
.

1945–1983

In 1945 the party had 7 MPs in Wales, mainly in the Welsh-speaking north, mid and west Wales seats. Two of these MPs

Lib-Lab pact
, and support for the failed devolution referendum resulted in a poor election for the Liberals: over half of their 28 candidates lost their deposit. More importantly Emlyn Hooson lost his Montgomeryshire seat, leaving the Welsh party once more with a single seat (Howells' in Cardiganshire). Hooson was ennobled later that year and joined Howells once more at Westminster.

1983–1997

The arrival of the

Lord Carlile of Berriew
in 1999. Followed in 2001 by Richard Livsey (of Talgarth) and Roger Roberts (of Llandudno) in 2004.

1997–2017

In the

Jenny Randerson, Peter Black, Roger Williams and Rob Humphreys. Except for Humphreys, they all soon gained electoral office, in either the Welsh Assembly or the Westminster Parliament. The Welsh Assembly elections in 1999 provided the party with six more elected representatives for Wales to join their two MPs, and three Welsh lords. At Westminster Roger Williams took over from Richard Livsey in Brecon and Radnor in 2001. In 2005 Mark Williams won the Ceredigion seat (formerly held by Geraint Howells); and Jenny Willott won the Cardiff Central seat, which was the first Liberal urban seat victory in Wales since 1935 and the first female Liberal MP in Wales since 1951. The four MPs were also the most since 1950 for the Liberal Party in Wales. It was Lembit Öpik
who now headed the party at Westminster.

In 1998 Michael German was elected as designate leader Welsh Assembly group and led their 1999 election campaign and then the new Assembly group. Between 2001 and 2003, the party were in a

Viscountess Rhondda, who had been ennobled in the first half of the 20th century, had died before women were allowed to sit in the House of Lords. Michael German was succeeded as the Assembly member for South Wales East by his wife Veronica German
. In May 2011, however, she failed to be re-elected in South Wales East.

In September 2012 Baroness Randerson was appointed as the unpaid Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Wales Office. This was the first time a Welsh Liberal Democrat had held ministerial office at Westminster since 1945. Randerson was also the first female politician from the Welsh Liberals ever to hold a UK ministerial office.

2017–present

Following the result of the 2017 UK general election, the Liberal Democrats were left without an MP in Wales, a situation which had not occurred since the founding of the Liberal Party in 1859.[9] In the autumn of 2017, the leadership election was held, with two candidates, Jane Dodds and Elizabeth Evans, taking part. On 3 November 2017, Dodds was announced as the winner and immediately took over as leader.

In August 2019, Dodds regained House of Commons representation for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, winning the 2019 Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.[10] However her stay in the House of Commons proved to be a short one, as she lost her seat by 7,131 votes at the December 2019 general election.[11] With this the party yet again was left without any MPs.[12]

In the aftermath of the result,

BBC Wales' Political Editor Felicity Evans stated that the Lib Dems would "rue the day they pushed for this election".[12]

Dodds gained a regional seat in Mid and West Wales at the 2021 Senedd election to become the party's only MS.[13] The seat was only held by 714 votes.[14]

In March 2024, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds said that the party will not join any coalition after the next UK general election.[15]

Electoral performance

House of Commons

This chart shows the electoral results of the Welsh Liberals, and later Liberal Democrats, from its first election in 1900. Total numbers of parliamentary seats, and vote percentages, are for Wales only.

Election Wales +/– Government
% Seats
1900 58.5
27 / 34
 Opposition
1906 60.2
32 / 34
 Increase 5 Majority
Jan 1910 52.3
27 / 34
 Decrease 5 Minority
Dec 1910 47.9
26 / 34
 Decrease 1 Minority
1918 48.9
20 / 35
 Decrease 6 Opposition
1922 34.2
10 / 35
 Decrease 10 Opposition
1923 35.4
11 / 35
 Increase 1 Opposition
1924 31.0
10 / 35
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1929 33.5
9 / 35
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1931 21.5
8 / 35
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1935 22.2
9 / 35
 Increase 1 Opposition
1945 14.9
6 / 35
 Decrease 3 Opposition
1950 12.6
5 / 36
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1951 7.6
3 / 36
 Decrease 2 Opposition
1955 7.3
3 / 36
 Steady Opposition
1959 5.3
2 / 36
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1964 7.3
2 / 36
 Steady Opposition
1966 6.3
1 / 36
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1970 6.8
1 / 36
 Steady Opposition
Feb 1974 16.0
2 / 36
 Increase 1 Opposition
Oct 1974 15.5
2 / 36
 Steady Opposition
1979 10.6
1 / 36
 Decrease 1 Opposition
1983 23.2
2 / 36
 Increase 1 Opposition
1987 10.7
3 / 36
 Increase 1 Opposition
1992 12.4
1 / 36
 Decrease 2 Opposition
1997 12.3
2 / 40
 Increase 1 Opposition
2001 13.8
2 / 40
 Steady Opposition
2005 18.4
4 / 40
 Increase 2 Opposition
2010 20.1
3 / 40
 Decrease 1 Cons-LD
2015 6.5
1 / 40
 Decrease 2 Opposition
2017 4.5
0 / 40
 Decrease 1 Opposition
2019 6.0
0 / 40
 Steady Opposition

Senedd

Election Constituency Regional Total seats +/– Government
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
1999 137,857 13.5
3 / 40
 128,008 12.5
3 / 20
6 / 60
 Opposition
(1999–2000)
Lab–LD
(2000–2003)
2003 120,250 14.1
3 / 40
 108,013 12.7
3 / 20
6 / 60
 Steady Opposition
2007 144,450 14.8
3 / 40
 114,500 11.7
3 / 20
6 / 60
 Steady Opposition
2011 100,259 10.6
1 / 40
 76,349 8.0
4 / 20
5 / 60
 Decrease 1 Opposition
2016 78,165 7.7
1 / 40
 65,504 6.5
0 / 20
1 / 60
 Decrease 4 Lab–LD
2021 54,202 4.9
0 / 40
 48,217 4.3
1 / 20
1 / 60
 Steady Opposition

See also

References

  1. ^ "Claire Halliwell". Welsh Liberal Democrats.
  2. ^ "Liberal Democrats". www.libdems.wales. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Jane Dodds is new Welsh Liberal Democrat leader". BBC News. 3 November 2017.
  4. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2016). "Wales/UK". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  5. ^ Democrats, Welsh Liberal. "Independence - Not the time, Not the Priority". Welsh Liberal Democrats.
  6. ^ "Style guide". Liberal Democrats. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  7. ^ "Wales Local Elections 2022". BBC News. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Brecon & Radnorshire parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  9. ^ a b "No Liberal MP in Wales for the first time since 1859". BBC News. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  10. ^ "By-election loss for Tories cuts Commons majority". BBC News. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  11. ^ "Women's political records in the United Kingdom". Belfast: Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  12. ^ a b "General election 2019: Tories claim big scalps in Wales". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Liberal Democrats nearly wiped out in Wales after losing only constituency seat to Conservatives". ITV News. 8 May 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  14. ^ Hayward, Will (8 May 2021). "Seven statistics that tell the story of Senedd Election 2021". WalesOnline. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  15. ^ Lewis, Rhodri (2 March 2024). "Welsh Liberal Democrats: No UK coalition, says leader". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2024.

External links

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