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Carmen Smith, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Smith of Llanfaes
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 March 2024
Life peerage
Personal details
Born
Carmen Ria Smith

(1996-03-15) 15 March 1996 (age 28)
Salisbury, England
Political partyPlaid Cymru
Alma materBangor University

Carmen Ria Smith, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (born 15 March 1996) is a Welsh politician. She has been a member of the House of Lords for Plaid Cymru since 2024.

Early life

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Smith was born on 15 March 1996[1] in Salisbury in Wiltshire, and moved with her family to Llanfaes on the Isle of Anglesey aged seven.[2] She attended Ysgol David Hughes and later Coleg Menai, where she was the students' union president of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.[2]

She was a carer to her father, who had dementia.[2]

Smith studied law at Bangor University for one year before leaving her studies to campaign to become the deputy president of NUS Wales.[2] She was elected to that role in 2016,[3] and later served as acting president at the end of her term. She was also a board member of the European Students' Union.

Career

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After leaving NUS Wales, Smith worked for ten months as an assistant at the international development organisation United Purpose. She later worked as an eight-month temporary political researcher to Jill Evans at the European Parliament, before returning to a role at United Purpose apparently based in New York City for eight months. She then worked for Plaid Cymru in the Senedd, first as administration manager to the Plaid Cymru group, then Head of Parliamentary Affairs and Operations, and finally Acting Chief of Staff in a temporary role. She was later a public affairs officer for the renewable energy company Bute Energy since October 2023.[4]

Smith stood in the June 2019 European Parliament election in Wales as the second candidate on the Plaid Cymru list, but was not elected.[5] She was a campaigner for the People's Vote, advocating for a second referendum on Brexit.[6] The same year, she unsuccessfully campaigned to become Plaid Cymru's nominee for the 2019 general election in Ynys Môn.[7]

House of Lords

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Smith was selected to be a Plaid Cymru member of the House of Lords through an internal party election after Lord Wigley announced his intention to retire in 2024; this would keep the number of Plaid Cymru peers at one.[4] Following her nomination, Smith said that she would "[fight] for a fair deal for Wales" and "work to inspire the next generation of women to take an active role in our communities and our nation".[8] She also said that she had a particular interest in coal tip safety.[9] Smith disagrees with the existence of the House of Lords as an unelected chamber but said the house needs "people in there speaking up for Wales".[10]

Following Smith's nomination to the peerage, a row broke out within Plaid Cymru regarding the process through which she had been selected for nomination. Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru selects its candidate for nomination via a party members' vote.[11][12] While Elfyn Llwyd, a former member of Parliament, received the highest share of the 2023 members' vote, Smith was selected over Llwyd. This was a result of a Plaid Cymru National Executive Committee decision, announced in advance of the vote, that nominees for peerages would alternate between women and men. While the party had lobbied for an increase in its number of seats within the House of Lords,[13] only one seat was available to Plaid Cymru at the time of the members' vote, and so only Smith was nominated.[4]

Some Plaid Cymru members criticised her appointment as undemocratic and unfair, and took issue with her lack of experience compared to her rival candidates.[4][12] Smith replied that the selection of a woman for nomination to the (predominately male) House of Lords is consistent with Plaid Cymru's status as a "party of equality"; and that the process through which she was elected was more democratic than the nomination process of any rival party.[12]

Speaking on a BBC Newscast podcast with Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O'Connell, Smith revealed that she would take "of Llanfaes" as her territorial designation.[14][15] She was created Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, of Llanfaes in the County of Ynys Môn, on 13 March 2024.[16] At the age of 27 on her appointment, Smith became the youngest member of the House of Lords,[17] and the youngest person ever to receive a life peerage, succeeding Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge.[18] Smith was introduced to the House of Lords on 21 March[18][19] and made her maiden speech on 25 April.[20]

References

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  1. ^ @CarmenRiaSmith (15 March 2017). "It's ma birthday" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 February 2024 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d Tarrant, Katie; Wheeler, Caroline; Menzies, Venetia (13 February 2024). "Meet the 27-year-old weightlifting fan who's about to join the Lords". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Carmen Ria Smith @ NUS Connect". NUS Connect. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Shipton, Martin (5 December 2023). "Plaid Cymru row over House of Lords nominations". Nation.Cymru. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  5. ^ Oluwole, Femi (12 May 2019). "Why I'm backing Plaid's Carmen Smith in the European election". Nation.Cymru. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  6. ^ Smith, Carmen Ria (19 October 2018). "Why the Welsh are marching for a People's Vote". The New European. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  7. ^ Wyn-Williams, Gareth (3 September 2019). "These are the Anglesey Plaid Cymru MP candidates". North Wales Live. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  8. ^ "Conservative donors and 27-year-old among new life peers". BBC News. 10 February 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  9. ^ "BBC Wales Today – Evening News". BBC iPlayer. 12 February 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  10. ^ Evans, Tomos (12 February 2024). "Carmen Smith: 'Activist' to become youngest peer – and she wants to scrap House of Lords". Sky News. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  11. ^ Bloom, Dan (15 March 2024). "Relax! There's no election ... for now". Politico. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Thomson, Alice (17 March 2024). "The Gen Z baroness who wants to abolish the House of Lords". The Times. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Written evidence from Plaid Cymru Westminster Group (HOL 49)". Committees. UK Parliament. March 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  14. ^ "Newscast – Marina Litvinenko on the death of Alexei Navalny". BBC Sounds. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  15. ^ BBC Woman's Hour [@BBCWomansHour] (19 February 2024). "Carmen Smith is about to become the youngest life peer in the House of Lords, aged 27 [...] The Plaid Cymru activist joins @emmabarnett to discuss her upcoming title of Baroness Smith of Llanfaes and why she believes the Lords system should be abolished" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ^ "No. 64348". The London Gazette. 19 March 2024. p. 5510.
  17. ^ "Plaid Cymru peer appointed as youngest member of House of Lords". ITV News. 10 February 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  18. ^ a b "Plaid Cymru: Youngest ever life peer to take her seat in Lords". ITV News. 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  19. ^ "Introduction: Baroness Smith of Llanfaes". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 837. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. 21 March 2024. col. 307.
  20. ^ Smith of Llanfaes, Baroness. "Affordable Housing: Supply - Motion to Take Note". TheyWorkForYou.com. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
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