Adam Price New leader of Plaid Cymru

Adam Price
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adam Price (born 23 September 1968) is a Welsh politician serving as the leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018, after ousting Leanne Wood in the September leadership election.[1]. Since 2016 he has sat in the National Assembly for Wales for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, having previously been a Member of Parliament for the coterminous Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency.

Contents

* 1 Early life and career
* 2 Political career

Early life and career

The son of a miner, Price was born in Carmarthen and went to Amman Valley Comprehensive School in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.[2] He studied at Cardiff University, gaining a BA in European Community Studies in 1991. After graduating, he worked as a research associate at the Cardiff University's department of City and Regional Planning. From 1998, he was the managing director of the Newidiem-Economic Development Consultancy. Price is openly gay and features in the Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures.[3][4] 

Political career

Price unsuccessfully contested the Gower seat in 1992. He was elected Member of Parliament for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr in 2001, holding the seat until he stood down in 2010. 

In 2002, Price obtained a letter written by Tony Blair to the Romanian Government in support of Lakshmi Mittal's LNM steel company, which was in the process of bidding to buy Romania's state-owned steel industry.[5][6][7] This revelation caused controversy, because Mittal had given £125,000 to the British Labour Party the previous year. Although Blair defended his letter as simply "celebrating the success" of a British company, he was criticised because LNM was registered in the Dutch Antilles and employed less than 1% of its workforce in the UK.[7] LNM was a "major global competitor of Britain's own struggling steel industry".[8] 

Blair's letter hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union.[5] It also had a passage, removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend".[7]

In 2004, Price announced his intention to begin a process of impeachment against Tony Blair following controversy over Iraq War, with the backing of Plaid Cymru and SNP MPs as well as Boris Johnson and Nigel Evans. If successful, it could have seen Blair tried before the House of Lords; however, as expected, the measure failed.[9]

In 2005, Price was ejected from the Commons chamber after accusing the Prime Minister of having "misled" Parliament and then refusing to withdraw his comment, in violation of the rules of the House.[10] 

In 2006, Adam Price opened a three-hour debate on an inquiry into the Iraq War, the first such debate in over two years. The SNP and Plaid Cymru motion proposing a committee of seven senior MPs to review "the way in which the responsibilities of government were discharged in relation to Iraq", was defeated by 298 votes to 273. 

Writing in the Welsh language current affairs magazine Barn in April 2007, Price criticised UK government policy on drugs, indicating his support for their legalisation under medical supervision.[11]

In August 2007, Price highlighted what he perceived as a lack of a Welsh focus on BBC news broadcasts.[12] Price threatened to withhold future television license fees in response to a lack of thorough news coverage of Wales, echoing a BBC Audience Council for Wales July report citing public frustration over how the Welsh Assembly is characterised in national media.[13] Plaid AM Bethan Jenkins agreed with Price and called for responsibility for broadcasting to be devolved to the Welsh Assembly, voicing similar calls from Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.[12] Criticism of the BBC's news coverage for Wales and Scotland since devolution prompted debate of possibly providing evening news broadcasts with specific focus for both countries.[12] 

Following the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections, a parliamentary standards and privileges committee found Plaid MPs Price, Elfyn Llwyd, and Hywel Williams guilty of improperly advertising during the elections.[14] Though the committee acknowledged the MPs did not break any rules of the House of Commons, the committee believed the timing of the adverts were planned to coincide with the Assembly elections.[14] 

Parliamentary funds are available for MPs to communicate with constituents regularly. However, the committee found that the three used this communication allowance improperly as part of Plaid's campaigning during the elections as the adverts were placed in publications with a circulation outside of their respective constituencies.[14] 

Of the committee findings, Plaid MP group leader Elfyn Llwyd said that they would comply with the findings of the committee, but that they had "acted in good faith throughout, and fully in line with the advice that was offered to us by the DFA (Department of Finance and Administration) at the time of the publication of the reports".[14] The MPs had to repay the money, about five thousand pounds each, and report the costs as part of Plaid's election spending.[14] 

In August 2007 Price began a regular column in the weekly Welsh language current affairs magazine Golwg.[15] 

Price has been a long-standing opponent to the War in Afghanistan and put forward an Early Day Motion calling for a timetable for withdrawal. Price has been critical of the strategy and objectives of the war. 

Price stood down from Parliament in 2010. He worked for the innovation charity Nesta until he was elected to the Welsh Assembly in 2016, for the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr seat.[16]
On 2 July 2018, Price published an article for WalesOnline where he called on Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood to accept proposals to implement a new co-leadership model for Plaid Cymru, "where two leaders, male and female, jointly lead the party”.[17] He had criticised the direction of the party under Wood.[18] Wood rejected the proposals, leading Price to challenge Wood for the leadership and declare his candidacy for the 2018 Plaid Cymru leadership election on 4 July, along with fellow Plaid Cymru AM Rhun ap Iorwerth.[19] 

Price proposed several new policies which Plaid Cymru could adopt as part of his leadership bid. He suggested his party should use Wales' incoming devolved powers on taxation to put one penny on income tax for increased funding in the education system.[20] In August, Price released a ten-point policy plan setting out his vision for the Welsh economy, policies included: cuts and swaps to tax, a publicly owned Welsh energy company, infrastructure spending, and a job guarantee programme.[21][22] A separate document he released for his campaign, 'Wales: Seven Steps to Independence', detailed step-by-step measures his party could take to achieve Welsh independence by the year 2030.[23][24] 

On 28 September 2018, Price was elected leader of Plaid Cymru with almost 50 percent of members' votes, defeating incumbent leader, Leanne Wood.