Tribute to Lord Elis-Thomas – by Lord Jones of Penybont
Lord Elis-Thomas: 18 October 1946 – 7 February 2025 | Image courtesy of UK Parliament
3 min read
MP, peer, the first presiding officer of the Welsh Assembly and later a Welsh government minister, Dafydd Elis Thomas was a respected, effective and pragmatic politician
On 7 February, Welsh politics lost Lord Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy, or Dafydd Elis Thomas as he was usually known, at the age of 78 and after nearly a half century of political service.
Dafydd was born in 1946 and was the child of a Presbyterian Church of Wales minister. He made the journey from Calvinism to Anglicanism during his life and eventually served on the governing body of the Church in Wales. He also served as chancellor of Bangor University.
Joining Plaid Cymru as a young man, his first foray into politics was as the party’s candidate in the Conway constituency at the tender age of 24 and this led to his election to the Merioneth constituency in 1974 where he won the seat by just over 500 votes, becoming the Baby of the House in the process. He represented that seat, and its successor Meirionnydd Nant Conwy for the next 18 years, leading his party from 1984-91.
Having temporarily left politics he went to the House of Lords and spent the next seven years out of elected politics, chairing the Welsh Language Board as it looked to implement the landmark Welsh Language Act of 1993.
The lure of elected politics became too much to resist however when Wales voted to establish its devolved assembly in 1997. Returning to elected politics in his previous constituency but now as its assembly member, he was elected as the National Assembly for Wales’ first presiding officer where he helped to shape the new institution – and made a point of reaching out to those who had not supported its establishment.
It was an honour to serve with him in government
He proved to be an effective and respected chair who did not shy away from exerting his authority, on one occasion asking a member of his own party to leave the chamber after ruling one of her comments as out of order. He served three terms as presiding officer, from 1999 to 2011.
Dafydd continued to serve on the backbenches but soon became disillusioned with his party, finally leaving it in 2016 to sit as an independent. It was soon after this decision that, as first minister of Wales, I approached him suggesting that he should become part of the Welsh government. I felt it was important to have somebody of his experience in government and he was delighted to accept, becoming minister for culture, sport and tourism in 2017.
He stood down as a member of the Senedd (as it had become by then) in 2021 and continued to attend the House of Lords as much as he could until his untimely death in February.
Dafydd’s political journey was long and varied. In his early days he was sometimes dubbed the “Meirionnydd Marxist” and was a fervent opponent of the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales in 1969. Often seen as being on the left of his party, his views changed over the years and, although he kept a solid core of beliefs, he became the presiding officer who welcomed Her Majesty the Queen to the Senedd and spoke with affection of HRH the Prince of Wales, the very man whose investiture he had opposed so strongly many years before.
Dafydd became more pragmatic as the years passed and for me it was an honour to serve with him in government. He will be sorely missed across the Welsh political scene and across all parties in the Senedd.
He leaves a wife, Mair and three children from a previous marriage.
Lord Jones of Penybont is a Labour peer and former first minister of Wales
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