Elections 2022: Plaid suspend Conwy councillor for running against colleague

Councillor Trystan Lewis

Trystan Lewis has been suspended from Plaid Cymru pending an investigation

Plaid Cymru has suspended a Conwy councillor for standing as an independent against a party colleague in the local council elections.

Trystan Lewis is standing in Llansannan ward against Susan Lloyd-Williams.

Mr Lewis said he took the decision because Ms Lloyd-Williams moved to Denbighshire.

A party source said he was suspended pending a disciplinary, and said the councillor had stood as an independent without informing his own group.

Mr Lewis is currently a Conwy County councillor in the Pensarn ward in Llandudno Junction but is now standing in Llansannan against Ms Lloyd-Williams, who has represented the area for Plaid since 2008.

Mr Lewis, who lives in Llanfair Talhaiarn, said he decided to stand against Ms Lloyd-Williams because she had moved to Bodelwyddan.

Ms Lloyd-Williams said she was "disappointed" that a former colleague had stood against her but that she was "proud to stand again to seek the mandate of the community I have known and loved for 26 years".

A party spokesperson said Ms Lloyd-Williams was the "embodiment of everything that Plaid stands for".

A Plaid Cymru source confirmed that Mr Lewis had been "suspended, pending a disciplinary panel" after a complaint was made against him.

The source told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It is in the Plaid Cymru rules that if you are a Plaid Cymru member you can't stand against another Plaid Cymru candidate as an independent.

"We only found out about this when people in the ward sent pictures of the independent leaflet he had been dropping around.

"But at the time he was a Plaid Cymru councillor in his ward in Llandudno Junction, yet he was leafleting as an independent against a colleague."

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Mr Lewis was a Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate in 2016

Mr Lewis was a former Plaid candidate for Aberconwy in the 2016 Senedd election and only narrowly lost to the current Tory MS Janet Finch-Saunders.

Mr Lewis said: "A couple of people from Llansannan ward approached me, asking if I was interested in standing in Llansannan because the current incumbent has moved to Bodelwyddan.

"I think she's [Ms Lloyd-Williams] been living there for three years, so she's living out of Conwy county. She's living in Denbighshire."

He said he had asked if there could be a hustings in the ward, but said but "that didn't happen" and the county committee selected the incumbent, he added.

"I decided to stand as an independent and leave the option for people to decide, from all political backgrounds."

But Plaid rejects that accusation saying "official hustings" were held and that Susan Lloyd-Williams' name "was the only one put forward before the closing date."

Asked why he was not standing in the ward where he lived - neighbouring Llanfair Talhaearn - Mr Lewis said: "I'm one field away from the [Lansannan] ward."

Ms Lloyd-Williams said: "It is of course disappointing and rather surprising that a colleague has decided to take this course of action, but I am proud to stand again to seek the mandate of the community I have known and loved for 26 years."

A Plaid spokesperson added: "Sue Lloyd-Williams has been an effective and efficient representative for the people of of Llansannan ward since her election to Conwy Council in 2008

"She was chosen unanimously by local Plaid Cymru members, in an official hustings process, to represent them in the election in May.

"Hers was the only one put forward before the closing date. Sue has the full support of the Plaid Cymru Councillors group as well as local Plaid Cymru members within Conwy.

"We are disappointed that a former-member of the Party and a current councillor has decided to stand as an independent candidate against Sue."

The candidates in Llansannan are:

  • Trystan Lewis, Independent

  • Loren Lloyd-Pepperell, Welsh Conservatives

  • Sue Lloyd-Williams, Plaid Cymru

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