Recent from talks
Leighton Andrews
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Leighton Andrews
Leighton Andrews (born 11 August 1957) is a former Welsh Labour politician and academic, who was the National Assembly for Wales member for Rhondda from 2003 to 2016. He was Education Minister from 2009 to 2013, before resigning after an alleged conflict between his own departmental policy and his active campaigning to save a school in his constituency. He was the first Minister to be forced to resign in Wales. In September 2014 he returned to the government as Minister for Public Services, until the 2016 Senedd election, when he lost his seat to Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru.
He left the Labour Party in 2019, attacking the party's failure to deal with anti-semitism and its attitude to Brexit under Jeremy Corbyn. He sought to rejoin in 2020, but was refused, after openly lending his support to the Green Party of England and Wales at the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Andrews was born in Cardiff, and brought up in Barry until the age of 11, when his family moved to Dorset. He holds a BA Honours (English and History) from the University of Wales, Bangor and an MA in History from the University of Sussex. He was a sabbatical officer in the students union at Bangor in 1978. He was a visiting professor at the University of Westminster from 1997 to 2002 and has been an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University since 2004. He was appointed as Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation, Cardiff Business School, in August 2016.
Andrews is married to Ann Beynon, formerly BT Director Wales; the couple have two children.
Andrews was an active Liberal Party member in the 1970s and 1980s. He was elected as a Union of Liberal Students member of the National Union of Students (NUS) executive in 1979 and stood as the Liberal Alliance candidate for Gillingham in the 1987 General Election at the age of 29. On returning to Wales to live in 1996 he was appointed to the board of Tai Cymru – Housing for Wales by the Conservative Secretary of State for Wales, William Hague.
He was co-founder of the Yes for Wales campaign for the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum. During the referendum campaign he produced a paper with Gareth Hughes, then of the Welsh Federation of Housing Associations (now known as Community Housing Cymru) and now of ITV Wales, arguing that savings could be found to liberate more funding for housing from the Government's proposal to abolish Tai Cymru as part of the devolution settlement.
He joined the Labour Party following the successful referendum campaign for a Welsh Assembly. He is the author of Wales Says Yes, a history of that campaign.
In 2002 Andrews was selected to fight Rhondda for Labour, after the party's shock defeat to Plaid Cymru's Geraint Davies at the 1999 Assembly election. Andrews retook the seat, with the highest increase in Labour's vote of any constituency in Wales (+21.1%) and its highest constituency vote.
Hub AI
Leighton Andrews AI simulator
(@Leighton Andrews_simulator)
Leighton Andrews
Leighton Andrews (born 11 August 1957) is a former Welsh Labour politician and academic, who was the National Assembly for Wales member for Rhondda from 2003 to 2016. He was Education Minister from 2009 to 2013, before resigning after an alleged conflict between his own departmental policy and his active campaigning to save a school in his constituency. He was the first Minister to be forced to resign in Wales. In September 2014 he returned to the government as Minister for Public Services, until the 2016 Senedd election, when he lost his seat to Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru.
He left the Labour Party in 2019, attacking the party's failure to deal with anti-semitism and its attitude to Brexit under Jeremy Corbyn. He sought to rejoin in 2020, but was refused, after openly lending his support to the Green Party of England and Wales at the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Andrews was born in Cardiff, and brought up in Barry until the age of 11, when his family moved to Dorset. He holds a BA Honours (English and History) from the University of Wales, Bangor and an MA in History from the University of Sussex. He was a sabbatical officer in the students union at Bangor in 1978. He was a visiting professor at the University of Westminster from 1997 to 2002 and has been an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University since 2004. He was appointed as Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation, Cardiff Business School, in August 2016.
Andrews is married to Ann Beynon, formerly BT Director Wales; the couple have two children.
Andrews was an active Liberal Party member in the 1970s and 1980s. He was elected as a Union of Liberal Students member of the National Union of Students (NUS) executive in 1979 and stood as the Liberal Alliance candidate for Gillingham in the 1987 General Election at the age of 29. On returning to Wales to live in 1996 he was appointed to the board of Tai Cymru – Housing for Wales by the Conservative Secretary of State for Wales, William Hague.
He was co-founder of the Yes for Wales campaign for the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum. During the referendum campaign he produced a paper with Gareth Hughes, then of the Welsh Federation of Housing Associations (now known as Community Housing Cymru) and now of ITV Wales, arguing that savings could be found to liberate more funding for housing from the Government's proposal to abolish Tai Cymru as part of the devolution settlement.
He joined the Labour Party following the successful referendum campaign for a Welsh Assembly. He is the author of Wales Says Yes, a history of that campaign.
In 2002 Andrews was selected to fight Rhondda for Labour, after the party's shock defeat to Plaid Cymru's Geraint Davies at the 1999 Assembly election. Andrews retook the seat, with the highest increase in Labour's vote of any constituency in Wales (+21.1%) and its highest constituency vote.
Recent media