Delyth Evans

Margaret Delyth Evans (born 17 March 1958) is a Welsh former politician and charity director who served as Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment in the National Assembly for Wales from 2000 to 2003.

Margaret Delyth Evans was born in Cardiff, Wales on 17 March 1958.

She was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen near Pontypridd and at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she achieved BA Hons in French.

She is a native speaker of Welsh.

She has said that she grew up in Carmarthenshire and that she was raised in the non-conformist faith.

She also has a sister, Carys Evans, who worked in the policy unit of the National Assembly for Wales during the premiership of Alun Michael and has a background in HM Treasury.

Prior to her career in politics, Evans was a journalist and a management consultant.

As a journalist, she worked for the BBC, ITN, HTV Wales and Sky News.

At the BBC, she worked on The World at One and afternoon programmes.

She joined the Labour Party in 1984 where she later became a policy adviser for the Labour leader John Smith from 1992 to 1994, working on policy for the shadow cabinet.

In 1984 she joined the Labour Party, later working on Margaret Beckett's successful deputy leadership campaign in 1992.

In the same year, she became an assistant to the shadow chancellor Gordon Brown and a policy adviser, researcher and speechwriter for the UK Labour leader John Smith.

Evans also became a member of Smith's policy unit alongside advisers Dave Ward and Pat McFadden, where she drew up policy for the shadow cabinet.

She stopped advising the Labour leadership in 1994 before later becoming a special adviser to Alun Michael, the first secretary of Wales, in 1999.

In 1999, she became a special adviser to Alun Michael, the first secretary of Wales.

At the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election, Evans was Labour's second candidate on the party list for Mid and West Wales, behind Michael.

At the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election, Evans was selected as the Labour Party's second top-up candidate on the party list for the Mid and West Wales region, behind Welsh party leader Alun Michael.

As the first candidate on the list, Michael was elected Assembly Member (AM) for the regional seat, so Evans was not elected to the assembly.

On 1 May 1999, Michael stood down from the assembly after a motion of no confidence in his premiership in February 2000 had forced him to resign as first secretary.

On the same day, Evans automatically took Michael's place in the assembly as Labour's second candidate on the party list at the assembly election, as per assembly rules.

A by-election was not required according to the rules, and Evans was sworn into office as AM for Mid and West Wales on 8 May 1999.

In this role, she served alongside Conservative AMs Nick Bourne and Glyn Davies and Plaid Cymru AM Cynog Dafis.

Her election to the assembly meant that more than half of Labour's AMs were now women.

She was also the only Labour member in the assembly to come from a party list.

A member of the Labour Party, she was Assembly Member (AM) for Mid and West Wales from 2000 to 2003.

Evans was born in Cardiff, Wales.

She was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Prior to her career in politics, she was a journalist and a management consultant, working for the BBC, ITN, HTV Wales and Sky News.

Michael was elected to represent Labour for the seat, but he resigned from the assembly in 2000.

As Labour's second candidate, Evans automatically succeeded him as AM for Mid and West Wales.

She was appointed to the administration of Rhodri Morgan as Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Local Government and Environment in July 2000.

In this role, she announced a review into assembly grants for tree planting.

On 24 July 2000, Evans was appointed to the interim administration of Rhodri Morgan as Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Local Government and Environment, succeeding Carwyn Jones.

In December 2001, she announced a review of the assembly's grants policy for planting trees.

In the National Assembly, Evans had reservations about the committments required of her as an assembly member.

In March 2002, she announced that she would step down from the assembly at the 2003 assembly election because she felt she was not spending enough time with her children.

Evans stepped down from the assembly at the 2003 assembly election to spend more time with her children.

Since then, she has been the executive director of Dress For Success.

With the formation of the coalition partnership later that year, her post was reorganised and on 17 October she became Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment, remaining in this role until the 2003 assembly election.

She also stood as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for the House of Commons constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire at the 2015 general election, losing to Conservative Member of Parliament Simon Hart.