Plaid Cymru leader's profile 'boosted by election'

Leanne Wood tackles former Labour leader Ed Miliband in an election debate

More voters recognise Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood since the general election boosted her profile, a political expert has said.

A YouGov survey of Welsh voter ratings for party leaders showed fewer "don't knows" for Ms Wood, down from 36% in December to 22%.

The figure for First Minister Carwyn Jones rose from 21% to 26%.

Prof Roger Scully of Cardiff University said Welsh Labour faced a rival leader as well-known and popular as theirs.

Both Mr Jones and Ms Wood had an average approval rating of 4.8 out of 10, according to the poll for ITV Wales and the university's Wales Governance Centre.

The Plaid leader's profile was boosted by involvement in leaders' debates and political discussion programmes in the run-up to polling day in May, said Prof Scully, although the party did not add to its tally of three Westminster seats.

Electoral gains

Looking ahead to the 2016 assembly election, he said: "Welsh Labour will face, for the first time since 1999, at least one opposition party leader who matches their own leader in both profile and popularity."

He added: "Although Leanne Wood's higher ratings have not thus far yielded significant electoral gains for her party, as Welsh voters begin to focus more on the assembly election next year this may change."

Plaid Cymru welcomed the survey, claiming it showed Ms Wood was "the most recognised leader of any political party in Wales".

A Welsh Labour spokesman said: "We take absolutely nothing for granted ahead of the assembly elections and we will be working our socks off in the coming months to reconnect with those people we didn't convince in May."

Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams had a rating of 4.4, with Tory Andrew RT Davies on 3.7, UKIP's Nathan Gill 3.4 and Pippa Bartolotti of the Greens on 3.7.

But they had much higher "don't knows" than the other two leaders, ranging from 41% for Ms Williams and 48% for Mr Davies to 61% for Ms Bartolotti and 62% for Mr Gill.

Prime Minister David Cameron had a rating of 3.8, but much higher recognition as only 6% of people surveyed failed to express an opinion on him.