Who is participating in BBC Wales' election debate?
Representatives of Plaid Cymru, Welsh Labour, the Liberal Democrats, The Conservative party, and Reform UK are taking part
- Published
Representatives from the five most prominent political parties in Wales are set to trade blows in a live televised debate on Friday evening.
Hosted by Bethan Rhys Roberts, the debate will be broadcast live on BBC One Wales, Radio Wales and online, at 19:00 BST.
It will feature Welsh Labour leader and first minister Vaughan Gething, Conservative David TC Davies, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Jane Dodds for the Lib Dems and Oliver Lewis for Reform UK.
So, who are they all and what can we expect from them?
Vaughan Gething
Mr Gething is entering his first general election as first minister of Wales
Vaughan Gething has been first minister, and Welsh Labour leader, since replacing Mark Drakeford in March - becoming the first black man to lead a government in Europe.
Born in Zambia to a Welsh father in 1971, Mr Gething moved to the UK when he was two and was raised in Dorset before attending Aberystwyth University.
After entering politics as a Cardiff councillor in 2004, Mr Gething was elected to the Senedd - then known as the National Assembly - as the member for Cardiff South and Penarth in 2011.
He gained national prominence during the Covid pandemic as Wales' health minister, and later became its economy minister.
Since narrowly beating Jeremy Miles to the top job on 16 March, his leadership has been mired in controversy after it was revealed his campaign accepted £200,000 from a company whose boss was twice convicted for environmental offences.
On 5 June, Mr Gething lost a no-confidence vote in the Senedd, tabled by the Tories, after two Labour members were off sick and unable to vote against it.
He has rejected calls to resign and has been publicly backed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
David TC Davies
David TC Davies has conceded it has been a "difficult" election campaign for the Tories
David TC Davies was appointed Welsh secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government in 2022.
Born in Newport in 1970, Mr Davies worked for British Steel after leaving school before going on to work as a nightclub promoter, tobacco picker and rickshaw driver, all in Australia.
Back in the UK he worked as a continental lorry driver and managed his family haulage business before he was elected to the Senedd, then Assembly, in 1999.
He was elected MP for Monmouth in 2005 and, prior to his cabinet appointment, chaired the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, was an assistant government whip and junior Wales Office minister.
He told the BBC earlier this month that high-profile errors by top Conservatives have contributed to a "difficult" election campaign for the party.
Mr Davies also said the 685,000 people that legally migrated to the UK in 2023 year was "far too high" and that he would personally want this number to be at around 100,000 to 150,000.
Rhun ap Iorwerth
Despite it being one of his party's core principles, Rhun ap Iorwerth has said the upcoming election is "not an independence election"
Rhun ap Iorwerth has been leader of Plaid Cymru since 2023, replacing Adam Price following a scathing report on misogyny, harassment and bullying within the party.
Born in Tonteg, near Pontypridd, in 1971, he grew up in Meirionnydd before moving to Anglesey when he was five.
After graduating from Cardiff University, Mr ap Iorwerth was a political reporter for BBC Wales from 1994 to 2013.
He quit the broadcaster to run for Plaid Cymru in a Senedd by-election for the Ynys Môn seat in 2013, which he has held ever since.
In the run up to polling day, Mr ap Iorwerth claimed that this is "not an independence election" and has instead focused his party's offer on building "a stronger, more prosperous economy for Wales".
He also said some areas in Wales need more immigration, not less - blaming strained public services on lack of UK government spending, not migrants.
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Jane Dodds
Jane Dodds has been Welsh Lib Dem leader since 2017
Jane Dodds was born in Wrexham in 1963, where she was raised before moving to Cardiff for university.
After graduating she trained to become a child protection social worker - which would be her career for the next 27 years.
Ms Dodds was first elected leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in November 2017.
After winning a by-election for the Brecon and Radnorshire Westminster constituency in 2019, she held the seat for just three months before the Tories wrestled it back off her in that year's general election.
Ms Dodds was then elected as a regional Senedd member for Mid and West Wales in 2021 and remains her party's only elected politician in Wales.
She has said a good election night for her party on 4 July would be "kicking the Tories out of Wales".
The party has heavily campaigned on improving social care, pledging to pay carers an extra £2 an hour and calling for them to be "valued higher in society".
Ms Dodds also said she believes the electorate have moved on from the party's tuition fees u-turn when it formed a coalition government with the Tories in 2010, which preceded the Lib Dems losing all but eight seats at the following election.
Oliver Lewis
Reform UK candidate Oliver Lewis has said the Tory party "needs to die"
Standing as a Reform UK candidate in the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr constituency, Oliver Lewis has said he politically identifies as "a radical" who wants a "wholesale re-set of Britain’s institutions".
Born and raised in Oxford, with a Welsh grandfather, Mr Lewis worked in financial services for five years after graduating university in 2009.
He is currently researching "British state failure" as a PhD student at Oxford University, where he also teaches British politics.
Mr Lewis has refuted suggestions that his party's aim for net zero immigration could cause gaps in the workforce, including in social and health care.
He said it was "morally reprehensible" to pull foreign labour into the health service - saying it is "not a long-term solution to our issues".
He also shot down a potential collaboration with the Tories in future, branding the party a "failing institution" which "frankly... needs to die".
The Green Party’s Anthony Slaughter will respond to the debate on BBC Radio Wales at 20:00 BST.
The debate will be broadcast live on BBC One Wales and BBC Radio Wales at 19:00 BST on Friday.
- Published19 June
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