Confirmation, more or less, of our musings in an earlier post about leadership contenders comes in the form of an announcement by Andrew Davies that he will not be throwing his hat in the ring – and is backing Edwina Hart for the job.
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Citing lifestyle reasons for his ‘withdrawal’, although he never actually declared that he was running, the Finance Minister’s admirably timed statement neatly kicks off a campaign by proxy that will definitely unsettle Lewis and Jones and could well see them both off.
Update: Peter Black claims he was first with the speculation on Freedom Central. We beg to differ.
4 Comments:
Easy Rebekah!
Alright it's good to see a Jack throwing her hat (a fine 'mother of the bride' number) in the ring, but it's still all to play for. The redoubtable Mrs Hart will certainly get support from some unions (Andy Richards for one) which Carwyn could otherwise have counted on, but her percieved status as being on the 'inside left' could pose problems for Huw.
I assume Andrew has assured himself that his favourite can garner the nominations. Assuming no fourth candidate emerges, i'd guess they probably run as follows:
HART, Edwina
Davies, Andrew David
Gregory, Janice
Barrett, Lorraine
Butler, Rosemary
Mewies, Sandy
Thomas, Gwenda
JONES, Carwyn
Andrews, Leighton
Davies, Alun
Griffiths, John
Sargeant, Carl
Cuthbert, Geoffrey
Griffiths, Lesley;
LEWIS, Huw
Neagle, Lynne
Chapman, Christine
James, Irene
Jones, Ann
Sinclair, Karen
Watson, Joyce
Non aligned: Lloyd, Valerie; Gibbons, Brian; Hutt, Jane; Morgan, Rhodri; Davidson, Jane
No real disagreement with your call on nominations. I think Val Lloyd can be assigned to the Hart camp and the other non-aligned are probably Carwyn's. What interests me is the degree to which Edwina can keep the One Wales van on the road compared to the other pair. Plaid could well end up being influential in this competition - albeit for different reasons.
Have reason not to call Valerie, but the next week will tell ... Suspect the others will stay aloof from nominations, but probably jump for Carwyn when the ballot paper land on the mat.
I think all of them will keep the OWA on the rails - it's the turmoil in Tranny House if Edwina or Huw get in that i'd expect to be interesting!
Well my prediction for Huw's was spot on - though Chris Chapman appears to have gotten cold feet - still six is sufficient according to Labour's rulebook and shoots down Leighton's spin that the Lewis campaign could fall over at the first hurdle!
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