Helen Mary Jones

Jones was born in Colchester, Essex. She was educated at Colchester County High School for Girls, Caereinion High School in Powys and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she was awarded an honours degree in history and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. She has taught in the special education field and has held various positions in youth, community and social work.^[3]

Jones is dyslexic and dyspraxic, which she did not disclose during her time as an additional needs teacher. She told WalesOnline: "I hid the problem from my colleagues, but not from the kids. I thought it might help the children if they knew that somebody who was a teacher and, in their eyes successful, had problems too."^[4]

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Jones was the deputy leader of Plaid Cymru from 2008 to 2012.^[5] Her political interests include environmental issues, social justice, equal opportunities, children's rights and employment.

She unsuccessfully contested the 1992 general election in Islwyn, as a joint Plaid Cymru-Green Party candidate,^[6] against the then leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock. She further unsuccessfully contested the 1997 general election in Montgomeryshire. In 1999 she was elected to the new National Assembly for Wales for the constituency of Llanelli. Prior to being elected as AM for Llanelli she was Senior Development Manager with the Equal Opportunities Commission in Wales.

She was Shadow Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, and a member of the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee, the Equality of Opportunity Committee, the South West Wales Regional Committee and also a member of the Voluntary Sector Partnership during the first term of the National Assembly.

She stood in the 2000 and 2003 Plaid Cymru leadership elections, losing to Ieuan Wyn Jones in both elections.^[7][8]

In the 2003 elections to the Senedd she lost her constituency seat in Llanelli by just 21 votes, but was nevertheless elected for the Mid and West Wales "top-up" region. She was the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Planning and Countryside in the Second Assembly (2003–07). During the 2007 elections to the Senedd she won back the Llanelli constituency with a majority of 3,884 votes. She lost her seat to Labour's Keith Davies by 80 votes in the 2011 election.^[9]

Jones is a member of the Ministerial Advisory Board sent in to Pembrokeshire County Council by the Welsh Government to support and challenge as they improve safeguarding after damaging inspection reports.

She was elected National Chair of Plaid Cymru in September 2011. Two months later, she was appointed Chief Executive of Youth Cymru, a voluntary organisation supporting youth work in Wales. She held this position until September 2017.^[10]

In October 2014, it was announced she would be Plaid's candidate for Llanelli at the 2016 Assembly election.^[5] In the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election, she lost to the Labour candidate Lee Waters by 382 votes.^[11]

Jones returned to the Senedd in August 2018 to represent Mid and West Wales following the resignation of Simon Thomas.^[1] During the COVID-19 pandemic, as Acting Chair of the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee, she praised efforts to continue promoting the language.^[12]

At the 2021 Senedd election, Jones' share of the vote in Llanelli declined by nearly 8% to 8,255 votes (27.3%), while Lee Waters was returned with an increased majority.^[13][14][15] Additionally, Jones sought re-election as a regional member, being placed second on Plaid's list.^[16] However, only top candidate Cefin Campbell was elected.^[17][18]