‘Plaid will empower women in politics’

PLAID Cymru’s Westminster group leader, Liz Saville Roberts, has announced that her party will implement new measures to improve women’s representation in Welsh politics.

She hailed a “deeds not words” approach to addressing the current imbalance when it comes to the number of women standing for public office in Wales.

Yesterday Plaid Cymru’s annual conference voted in favour of a motion including a range of proposals to twin constituencies with one woman candidate and one man, and asking each constituency in Wales to identify three women to be invited to put their names forward for the national register.

Ms Saville Roberts, who became Plaid’s first-ever female MP when she was elected to represent Dwyfor Meirionnydd in 2015, said: “The pace of progress in terms of improving women’s representation in Welsh politics has stalled.

“That is why Plaid Cymru’s annual conference has resolved to implement a range of proposals on the basis of a decision taken at last year’s conference to address this issue.

“The proposals include asking each constituency in Wales to identify three women to be invited to put their names forward for the national register, with a target of doubling the number of women on the register in order to increase the number of potential women candidates.

“Plaid Cymru will also identify 16 target seats to be twinned, with a man to stand in one and a woman in the other.

“This approach is rooted in the principle of empowering constituencies to empower local women candidates.”