Jane Dodds
Jane Dodds | |
---|---|
File:Jane Dodds at Brighton 2018 (cropped).jpg | |
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Food and Rural Affairs | |
Assumed office 21 August 2019 |
|
Leader | Jo Swinson |
Preceded by | Alistair Carmichael (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) |
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Wales | |
Assumed office 21 August 2019 |
|
Leader | Jo Swinson |
Preceded by | The Baroness Humphreys of Llanrwst |
Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats | |
Assumed office 3 November 2017 |
|
Leader | Vince Cable Jo Swinson |
Preceded by | Mark Williams |
Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire |
|
In office 2 August 2019 – 6 November 2019 |
|
Preceded by | Chris Davies |
Succeeded by | Fay Jones |
Personal details | |
Born | Wrexham, Wales, UK |
13 September 1963
Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Spouse(s) | Patrick Dodds |
Education | Cardiff University |
Website | Official website |
Jane Dodds (born 13 September 1963) is a Welsh politician and the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, elected in 2017. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire for the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the seat's 2019 by-election, a position she held until the general election later the same year.
Early and personal life
Dodds was born and raised in Wrexham, North Wales. She attended Ysgol Morgan Llwyd and is a fluent Welsh speaker. She studied at Cardiff University before going on to train to become a social worker, and worked for the Salvation Army in Child Protective Services for 27 years before being elected. During this time she also worked in a number of local authorities, for Cafcass, as well as having led the Children's Section of the Refugee Council.
She currently lives in Hay-on-Wye with her husband Patrick.
Political career
Dodds moved to London in early 2000 and was a member of the Labour Party until 2003. She left the party following Labour's decision to take part in the Invasion of Iraq in early 2003, with Dodds being a strong opponent of military intervention. In 2005 she joined the Liberal Democrats following a meeting with Susan Kramer, then the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, and quickly became active in the local Richmond party.
Dodds stood for Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council for the Liberal Democrats in the 2006 local elections, being elected as one of three councillors in the North Richmond ward.[1] In 2008 she was appointed as Cabinet Member for Performance in the Lib Dem run administration, where she was responsible for the performance of the authority and ensuring that residents get value for money.[2] She narrowly failed to retain her seat in 2010 by a narrow margin of 19 votes, despite coming top of the three Liberal Democrat candidates.
She also contested a by-election for the same ward in 2012, following the resignation of one of the sitting Conservative Councillors. During the by-election she was the victim of false leaflets produced in her name, which were produced to look like official Liberal Democrat literature.[3] She narrowly missed out on re-election by 146 votes.
In November 2012 Dodds returned to Wales and moved to Welshpool. In early 2013 she stood for, and was selected as, the Parliamentary candidate for Montgomeryshire, which the Liberal Democrats had held from 1983 to 2010 by Alex Carlile and then Lembit Öpik. She contested the seat in both the 2015 and 2017 General Elections, as well as the corresponding Welsh Assembly constituency of Montgomeryshire in 2016. On a backdrop of a tough set of elections for the Welsh Liberal Democrats Dodds came a strong second on all three occasions, with the Welsh Conservative retaining both seats.
Dodds was elected as the Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader in November 2017, defeating Aberaeron Cllr Elizabeth Evans by 13% in an all-member ballot.
In March 2019, Dodds was selected as the party's Westminster candidate for Brecon and Radnorshire.[4] As the candidate for the constituency, Dodds attacked then-Conservative leadership candidate Boris Johnson's comments about immigrant communities where English is allegedly not spoken as a first language, describing Johnson, in Welsh, as out-of-touch with communities in Wales.[5]
She won the by-election on 1 August 2019, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 8,000 votes.[6] Despite winning 1,000 more votes, she failed to retain her seat at the general election of 12 December 2019.
Elections
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fay Jones | 21,958 | 53.1 | 14.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | Jane Dodds | 14,827 | 35.9 | 7.6 | |
Labour | Tomos Davies | 3,944 | 9.5 | 4.2 | |
Monster Raving Loony | Lady Lily the Pink | 345 | 0.8 | 0.3 | |
Christian | Jeff Green | 245 | 0.6 | New | |
Majority | 7,131 | 17.2 | |||
Turnout | 41,319 | 74.5 | 14.8 | ||
Registered electors | 55,490 | ||||
Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat | Swing | 10.9 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrat | Jane Dodds | 13,826 | 43.46 | 14.36 | |
Conservative | Christopher Davies | 12,401 | 38.98 | 9.62 | |
style="background-color: Template:Brexit Party/meta/color; width: 5px;" | | [[Brexit Party|Template:Brexit Party/meta/shortname]] | Des Parkinson | 3,331 | 10.47 | New |
Labour | Tom Davies | 1,680 | 5.28 | 12.42 | |
Monster Raving Loony | Lady Lily the Pink | 334 | 1.05 | New | |
UKIP | Liz Phillips | 242 | 0.76 | 0.64 | |
Majority | 1,425 | 4.5 | |||
Turnout | 31,814 | 59.72[9] | |||
Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative | Swing |
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jane Dodds |
- Official website
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire August 2019– November 2019 |
Succeeded by Fay Jones |
- Articles with short description
- Use British English from November 2019
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Use dmy dates from November 2019
- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- 1963 births
- Alumni of Cardiff University
- Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies
- Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies
- Living people
- People from Wrexham
- UK MPs 2017–2019
- Welsh Liberal Democrats
- Welsh-speaking politicians