Neil McEvoy

Neil John McEvoy (born 1970) is a Welsh nationalist politician, serving as leader of Propel since 2020, and as a Cardiff Councillor for the Fairwater ward since 2008.

McEvoy was born in 1970 in Cardiff.

His maternal grandfather was a Yemeni who came to Cardiff to work on the docks, and he has spoken about the contribution that Yemenis made to Britain in the Second World War.

McEvoy previously trained and worked as a teacher of modern languages.

McEvoy was elected to Cardiff Council as Welsh Labour Councillor for Riverside in 1999 and later became vice-chair of the Labour council group, he defected to Plaid Cymru in 2003.

He lost his seat in Riverside in 2004, but was elected in 2008 in the Fairwater ward.

McEvoy stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election in Cardiff West.

He then became Deputy Leader of Cardiff Council between 2008 and 2012 under a Liberal Democrat-Plaid Cymru coalition administration.

In November 2011 in a Facebook post, McEvoy accused the charity Welsh Women's Aid of "publicly funded child abuse" and claimed they supported women in breaking court orders on fathers' access to children.

He was subsequently suspended by Plaid Cymru, and after investigation was allowed to return.

McEvoy apologised for the words he used, but did not withdraw the allegations.

In Council elections in May 2011, Welsh Labour ward opponent Michael Michael distributed leaflets of Only Fools and Horses character Del Boy with McEvoy's face imposed on them.

In 2012 he was re-elected to represent Fairwater.

In 2012, as a councillor, McEvoy presented a petition in the Welsh language, resulting in an argument with representatives of other parties.

Despite protests, McEvoy declined to speak in English at the council meeting.

In September 2012, despite Plaid's decision not to put forward any candidates for Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, McEvoy said that he wanted to stand for the PCC for South Wales Police.

McEvoy did not stand, Plaid did not put forward a candidate, and subsequently former MP Alun Michael won the position for Welsh Labour.

In July 2015, McEvoy was narrowly beaten by Plaid Cymru Party leader Leanne Wood in the contest for first place on the party list for the 2016 Assembly election, but gained second place.

McEvoy subsequently sued Michael for libel, but withdrew the case in December 2015.

Additionally, McEvoy was a Member of the Senedd (MS) for the South Wales central region from 2016 to 2021.

He was elected to the Senedd, then known as the Welsh Assembly, on the Plaid Cymru regional list, under the Additional Member System, and later sat as an independent.

In May 2016, he was elected as Member of the Senedd, then known as the Welsh Assembly, on the Plaid Cymru regional list, under the Additional Member System.

McEvoy also stood as a constituency candidate for Cardiff West once more in the 2016 Assembly elections, which saw Plaid Cymru's share of the vote increase by 11.9%.

The incumbent AM, Labour's Mark Drakeford, saw his majority reduced to 1,176 votes, with the Conservatives in third place.

McEvoy was elected for the regional seat of South Wales Central.

After election to the Assembly, McEvoy continued to serve as a councillor on Cardiff Council, receiving the councillor's basic allowance of £13,300 in addition to the Senedd salary of £64,000.

His Labour Party opponents described this as hypocrisy, saying that he had previously said it was wrong for people in public office to be a councillor and to work in another job.

McEvoy later commented that there was a complete synergy between the two roles, making him more effective at both, and that he was donating his pay as a councillor to his community.

In the run-up to the 2017 Cardiff Council election, Wales Online described McEvoy as "arguably the most divisive frontline elected politician in Wales right now" who, despite being "at the forefront of an unprecedented growth of Plaid support and membership in Cardiff" had a "sometimes difficult relationship" with his adopted party, Plaid Cymru.

McEvoy has, contrary to the policy of Plaid Cymru, supported the continuation of the Right to Buy scheme in Wales.

In August 2019 McEvoy gave an Assembly speech informing First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford of costs of up to £245 to change lightbulbs under the Welsh Government Warm Homes/Arbed Am Byth scheme.

Drakeford responded to the claims with a letter stating that costs of £245 represented work including lighting fitting in "not less than 80% of all fixed outlets" in homes, as opposed to £245 for individual lightbulb fittings.

McEvoy responded by accusing the First Minister of discussing the matter with Arbed Am Byth alone, and not investigating contractors directly.

He stated that he was unable to disclose details of his "whistle-blowers" to the First Minister, but would be contacting the Auditor General for Wales.

Also in August 2019, McEvoy was included in a list of the AMs with the largest budgets for staff and constituency office costs in the Assembly.

He was described as budgeting £115,865 for his office, which McEvoy described as necessary to deal with "an enormous amount of casework" and stated his "office is far busier than the local Westminster MP".

His budget was the largest of any AMs in the Assembly.

McEvoy lost his seat following the 6 May 2021 elections.

In February 2020, he announced that he was forming a new political party, the Welsh National Party, later renamed as Propel.

He opposed the Welsh Government's Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 which saw most forms of corporal punishment of children prohibited.