Dafydd Elis-Thomas

"Dafydd Thomas" redirects here. For the Little Britain character, see Daffyd Thomas.

The Right Honourable The Lord Elis-Thomas PC
Official portrait, 2019
Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism
In office 3 November 2017 – 13 May 2021
First Minister	Carwyn Jones Mark Drakeford
Preceded by	Ken Skates
Succeeded by	Dawn Bowden
1st Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales
In office 12 May 1999 – 11 May 2011
Monarch	Elizabeth II
First Minister	Alun Michael Rhodri Morgan Carwyn Jones
Deputy Presiding Officer	Jane Davidson John Marek Rosemary Butler
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Rosemary Butler
Assembly Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (1999–2007)
In office 6 May 1999 – 29 April 2021
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Mabon ap Gwynfor
UK Parliamentary representation Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Incumbent Assumed office 18 September 1992 Life peerage Member of Parliament for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Merioneth, 1974–1983) In office 28 February 1974 – 16 March 1992 Preceded by William Edwards Succeeded by Elfyn Llwyd
Personal details
Born	Dafydd Elis Thomas (1946-10-18) 18 October 1946 Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Political party	Independent (2016–present)
Other political affiliations	Plaid Cymru (1970–2016)
Spouse(s)	Elen Williams Mair Parry Jones (present)
Children	3

Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, PC (né Thomas; born 18 October 1946), is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1984 to 1991 and represented the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in the Senedd from 1999 to 2021.

Born in Carmarthen, Wales, he was raised in Ceredigion and the Conwy Valley. He represented Merioneth and later Meirionnydd Nant Conwy as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1992, and was Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales from the office's inception in 1999 to 2011. Elis-Thomas has been a member of the House of Lords since 1992 and a privy counsellor since 2004. In 2016, he left Plaid Cymru to support Carwyn Jones's government in the Senedd, sitting as an independent. He joined the Welsh government in November 2017 and was Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism until May 2021. Elis-Thomas applied to rejoin Plaid Cymru in August 2023, but withdrew his application later in the year.

Personal

Elis-Thomas (left) at an Urdd Gobaith Cymru public speaking competition in Llanrwst in 1962

Dafydd Elis Thomas was born on 18 October 1946 at Priory Hospital, Carmarthen, and brought up in the Llandysul area of Ceredigion, and in Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley. In 1970, he married Elen Williams and had three sons. They later divorced. From the mid-1980s until 1992 his partner was Marjorie Thompson, the chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In 1993, he married Mair Parry-Jones. He lives in Llandaff, Cardiff (when working at the Senedd) and Betws-y-Coed (in the Aberconwy constituency, but prior to boundary changes in his constituency).

Professional career

He was the chairman of the Welsh Language Board between 1994 and 1999, and is a former member of the Arts Council of Wales, Governor of the British Film Institute and Chairman of Screen Wales between 1992 and 1999. He was also a director and vice-chairman of Cynefin Environmental Ltd. between 1992 and 1999. A former university lecturer, he has also been the president of Bangor University since 2000, as well as currently being a member of the governing body of the Church in Wales.

Political career

UK Parliament

Having come third at Conwy in the 1970 general election, Thomas served as MP for Merioneth between 1974 and 1983, initially as the Baby of the House, and subsequently as MP for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy from 1983 to 1992. On entering the House of Commons in 1974, he became one of the first MPs to be allowed to take the oath of allegiance in Welsh as well as in English.

He was created a life peer on 18 September 1992 as Baron Elis-Thomas, of Nant Conwy in the County of Gwynedd, with a change of his surname from Thomas to Elis-Thomas. He sat as a crossbench peer because at that time he had taken on the non-political role of chair of the Welsh Language Board; in 2012, he took the Plaid Cymru whip in the Lords until leaving the party in 2016.

Senedd

Elis-Thomas was elected to the newly established National Assembly for Wales (now called "Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament", or simply Senedd) in 1999, representing the Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituency until the 2007 election, and then the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency. He also held the position of Presiding Officer from the Assembly's inception in 1999 until 2011. During his tenure as Presiding Officer, he expelled Assembly member Leanne Wood from the Assembly chamber during a December 2004 debate after Wood referred to Queen Elizabeth II as "Mrs Windsor" during a debate and refused to withdraw the remark, the first time an AM was ordered out of the chamber on those grounds.

From 2011, Elis-Thomas was Plaid Cymru's spokesperson for Environment, Energy and Planning before transferring to Rural Affairs, Fisheries and Food in 2012. In October 2016 he left Plaid Cymru, but remained in the Assembly as an Independent member. In November 2017, as part of a Welsh Government reshuffle, Elis-Thomas was appointed as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport.

Elis-Thomas is also Honorary President of the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight Cymru.

He announced on Dewi Llwyd's BBC Radio Cymru programme on 12 April 2020 that he will not be standing in the 2021 Senedd election. After long consideration he said that he will not be standing in Dwyfor Meirionnydd in 2021, but said that there are many other ways to serve society.

External links

• National Assembly for Wales Member profile
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dafydd Elis-Thomas