Leanne Wood

Her political heroes include Lewis Lewis, one of the leaders of the 1831 Merthyr Rising.

Leanne Wood (born 13 December 1971) is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from March 2012 to September 2018, and served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) from 2003 to 2021.

Wood was born in Llwynypia Hospital on 13 December 1971, the daughter of Jeff and Avril (née James) Wood.

She was brought up and still lives in the nearby village of Penygraig.

She was educated at Tonypandy Comprehensive School (now Tonypandy Community College), and the University of Glamorgan (now the University of South Wales).

Wood credits her political awakening to reading Marge Piercy's 1976 feminist classic Woman on the Edge of Time, and the 1984–85 UK miners' strike.

After joining Plaid Cymru in 1991 aged 20, Wood was elected a Councillor for the Penygraig ward on Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council in 1995; she did not recontest the seat in 1999.

From 1997 to 2000, Wood worked with the Mid Glamorgan Probation Service as a probation officer.

She unsuccessfully stood in both the 1997 and 2001 elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom as a candidate in the Rhondda constituency.

From 1998 to 2000 she was co-chair of the National Association of Probation Officers.

Wood lectured in social policy at Cardiff University from 2000, until her election to the National Assembly for Wales in 2003.

After leaving the probation service in 2000, she was Jill Evans MEP's political researcher until 2001.

Wood worked as a support worker for Cwm Cynon Women's Aid from 2001 to 2002, where she has been Chair since 2001.

Born in the Rhondda, she was elected as to the then National Assembly for Wales in 2003, representing South Wales Central until 2016, when she was elected for Rhondda.

She lost her seat to Welsh Labour at the 2021 Senedd election.

Ideologically, Wood identifies as a socialist, republican and proponent of Welsh independence.

She was the first female leader of Plaid Cymru and the first to learn Welsh as an adult, rather than being brought up speaking Welsh.

Wood was Chair of Cardiff Stop the War Coalition from 2003 to 2004.

Wood was then elected as a Member of the National Assembly for Wales (AM) in the election of 1 May 2003, representing the South Wales Central region for Plaid.

She was the party's Shadow Social Justice Minister between 2003 and 2007.

In December 2004, Wood, a republican, was the first Assembly Member to be ordered out of the chamber, after referring to the Queen as "Mrs Windsor" during a debate.

Lord Elis-Thomas, a fellow Plaid Cymru AM and the Presiding Officer, asked Wood to withdraw the remark on the grounds of discourtesy.

When Wood refused, she was ordered to leave.

She later said: "I don't recognise the Queen ... I don't think I was treated fairly, I don't think it was necessary. I called her that because that's her name."

Wood became Plaid Cymru's sustainability spokesperson from the formation of the One Wales government, a coalition between Labour and Plaid Cymru in July 2007, remaining in the role until the end of Assembly's term in 2011.

While in the role, Wood campaigned on green issues, including calling for more land to be made available for growing food.

Wood was arrested on 8 January 2007 for protesting against the UK's Trident nuclear missile programme at Faslane naval base in Scotland.

Between 2009 and 2011, Wood led the exposure of excesses at the Wales Audit Office, while under the control of Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, she uncovered a severance package of £750,000, personally authorised by Colman, to the former chief operating officer Anthony Snow.

Further scrutiny uncovered more self-authorised expenses, including training costs for Colman and Snow and the £464 cost of hiring a chauffeur-driven Mercedes for Snow to attend a meeting on how to save public money.

Colman resigned in February 2010 following an internal investigation, subsequently pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

Figures obtained by Wood under the Freedom of information Act revealed the level of pay among university vice-chancellors in Wales.

During the 2011 referendum on extending the National Assembly for Wales's law-making powers, Wood was Plaid Cymru's representative on the all-party Yes for Wales steering group, which campaigned successfully for a 'Yes' vote.

She is Chair of the PCS Cross-Party Group in the Welsh Assembly.

According to the BBC, Wood's particular areas of interest are: poverty; women's issues; social services; criminal justice; social exclusion; mental health; anti-privatisation; and anti-war.

Her Plaid Cymru profile includes her commitment to working "for Wales to become a self-governing decentralist socialist republic".

Upon becoming leader of Plaid in 2012, Wood refused the party leader's allowance to which she was entitled.

Upon being re-elected in 2016 and becoming leader of the opposition, she did the same again.

Wood lost her Rhondda seat to Labour's Buffy Williams at the 2021 Senedd election.

She described the result as "disappointing", but insisted that Plaid had run a "clean and honest campaign."