Baroness Morgan seeks assembly election via regional list

Baroness Morgan represented Wales as a Labour MEP for 15 years

Former Labour MEP Baroness Morgan of Ely will seek election to the Welsh assembly via the regional lists.

It had been thought she wanted to stand in Neath, but has now turned her sights to the list for Mid and West Wales, which she represented in Europe.

"They put their faith in me when I was an inexperienced 27 year old starting out on my political career," she said.

Welsh Labour is not allowing hopefuls to stand in 2016 as dual candidates, in a constituency and on a regional list.

Baroness Morgan, who was a Welsh MEP from 1994 to 2009, is currently shadow minister for Wales and foreign affairs in the House of Lords.

The assembly's 60 members include 40 representing constituencies and 20 elected from five regional lists to give a more proportional result.

Dual candidacies - banned at the assembly elections in 2007 and 2011 - will be allowed in May 2016.

However Labour - unlike the other major parties - is telling its candidates to choose one avenue or the other.

Analysis by Vaughan Roderick, BBC Welsh affairs editor

Eluned Morgan's decision to seek an assembly seat was made late in the political cycle with many of Labour's constituency selections already underway.

Her plans were further complicated when deputy minister Rebecca Evans decided not to defend her seat on the Mid and West Wales regional list and to seek a constituency nomination.

Labour has been keen to avoid a bruising battle between Ms Evans and the former MEP - and Baroness Morgan's decision to take up the regional list slot being vacated by Ms Evans provides an elegant, if risky, solution.

Baroness Morgan will be in second place on Labour's regional list behind sitting AM Joyce Watson and, while the party won two seats in Mid and West Wales in 2011, there's no certainty that success will be repeated in 2016.

Ironically, Baroness Morgan's fate could be decided by the constituency result in Llanelli where a Plaid Cymru gain from Labour would substantially increase the party's chance of winning two seats on the list.