16 Facts About Lesley Griffiths

Lesley Griffiths previously served as Trefnydd of the Senedd and Minister for North Wales from 2021 to 2024, and Minister for Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2024.

Lesley Griffiths worked as a secretary to John Marek and the constituency assistant to Ian Lucas, successive Members of Parliament for Wrexham, and was elected to the Senedd from the Wrexham constituency in 2007.

Lesley Griffiths has held a number of cabinet positions in the Welsh Government.

Lesley Griffiths was then appointed Minister for Local Government and Government Business in March 2013.

Lesley Griffiths retained her post in a Welsh Government Cabinet reshuffle in November 2017, but with a revised portfolio of Energy, Planning, and Rural Affairs with Hannah Blythyn becoming her Deputy Minister for the Environment.

However, in 2003 Marek was de-selected by the local party and Lesley Griffiths was selected in his place.

Lesley Griffiths benefited from high-profile support as the party saw an opportunity to recapture the seat; John Marek appealed to the large Polish immigrant population by translating his election material into Polish.

However, Lesley Griffiths increased her numerical vote while Marek's vote fell, and she won the seat by 1,250.

In 2011, Lesley Griffiths faced Marek for a third time, though by now Marek had joined the Conservatives.

Lesley Griffiths was re-selected to defend her seat at the 2016 election, and retained it with a reduced majority of 1,325 over the Conservative candidate.

Lesley Griffiths was appointed Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills in December 2009.

Lesley Griffiths was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs following re-election in May 2016, before being appointed Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning, and Rural Affairs in November 2017.

Lesley Griffiths became Minister for Environment, Energy, and Rural Affairs in the First Drakeford government in December 2018 and then Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd in May 2021.

In March 2024, Lesley Griffiths was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice in the Gething government.

In October 2018 Lesley Griffiths used her ministerial office to overturn the decision of a planning inspector to refuse a proposed wind farm near Llandrindod Wells.

In July 2024, Lesley Griffiths resigned from the Welsh Cabinet, alongside three other cabinet members, from First Minister Vaughan Gething's government, prompting Gething's subsequent resignation as First Minister.