For nine years, Jane Dodds has led the Welsh Liberal Democrats through some very challenging times. By the time she took office, the party had been brutally punished at the ballot box for its role in the Coalition and the ensuing decade has not provided the most fertile of territory for us.

However, Jane has stood up consistently for our values in that challenging environment. She has always stood up for human rights, proposed ways to alleviate child poverty, including a Universal Basic Income. In fact, she was responsible for me becoming more sympathetic to that. She was one of the first politicians to talk about tackling loneliness and social isolation. She’s been a voice for marginalised people and deserves our pride and gratitude.

Just as in the Federal Party, elections for the Scottish and Welsh parties trigger a  leadership election. Alex Cole-Hamilton was quietly re-elected as Scottish Leader unopposed a month or so back. Tonight, Jane has announced that she is stepping down as Welsh Leader.

In a statement emailed to Welsh Lib Dem members before being released publicly, she said:

I wanted you to hear this from me first, before anyone else: I have decided to stand down as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Leading this party has been the honour of my life. When you elected me in 2017, I said I wanted to bring like-minded people together, rebuild our party, and make the Welsh Liberal Democrats a radical, progressive force in Welsh politics again. Nearly nine years on, I hope you feel we have done that together.

We’ve won councillors in every corner of Wales. With just one voice in the Senedd, we used our budget deal to win real money for childcare, for families who were desperate for it. We’ve fought for the children growing up in poverty in our country. And when others wanted Wales to turn its back on refugees, we stood up, loudly and proudly, for Wales as a Nation of Sanctuary.

None of that happened because of me. It happened because of you: the leaflets, the doorsteps, the phone banks, the wet Saturday mornings. Thank you.

I’ve spent the summer thinking hard about May’s election. If I’m honest, it wasn’t the result we worked so hard for. Once again, I am our party’s only Member of the Senedd. I don’t want to be the only one after the next election. Wales needs a team of liberal voices in the Senedd, and that means starting now. We need new candidates, new councillors and new leaders who will spend the next few years in their communities, shaping our policies and making our case on the airwaves. I believe that work should be led by a new generation, and that the right time to hand over is now, while there is time to build.

When I became leader, Theresa May was Prime Minister and Carwyn Jones was First Minister. Six Prime Ministers and five First Ministers later, I hope I have given our party something steady to build on.

I am not going anywhere. I will carry on as the Member of the Senedd for Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd, and I will carry on doing what brought me into politics in the first place.

I spent 27 years as a child protection social worker. I saw what poverty does to children, and I have never been able to accept it. One child growing up in poverty is one too many. Today, more than 200,000 children in Wales, almost one in three, are growing up poor. The new Plaid Cymru Government has promised to put child poverty at the heart of everything it does. I will hold them to that promise every single day, and I will keep pushing them to go further and faster, until every child in Wales gets the start in life they deserve.

Our Party President, Tim Sly, will write to you in the coming days with the timetable for the leadership election.

Finally, my thanks to our staff and volunteers, who have given so much, and above all to my husband Patrick. I could not have done any of this without his love, patience and support.

Diolch o galon, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Jane.

At the time of writing, the only eligible candidate is Wales’ other parliamentarian, David Chadwick.

He paid tribute to Jane, saying:

Jane has led the Welsh Liberal Democrats through an incredibly difficult period for both our party and Welsh politics, and she has done so with determination and resilience.

“Under her leadership, our party has begun to rebuild. In 2022, we gained council seats in Wales for the first time in a decade, and at the 2024 General Election we re-established Welsh Liberal Democrat representation at Westminster.

“On a personal level, I am particularly grateful for everything Jane has done alongside me in Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe. We have worked together on countless campaigns for our communities, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with her on the issues facing our constituents and the people of Wales.

“Jane has given an enormous amount to the Welsh Liberal Democrats and to public life in Wales, and she deserves our sincere thanks for her service as Leader.

“There will understandably be questions about what comes next. Today should be about Jane and her contribution to our party. I will make a statement about my own political future in the coming days.”

Ed Davey also paid tribute to her:

I’m so grateful to Jane for her 9 years’ service as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

She secured big wins on social care, childcare, bus services and protecting rivers.

I know she’ll continue to be a tireless champion for Liberalism and the people of Wales. Diolch Jane!

His relationship with her had not always been so positive, though that seemed to have changed by the elections this year.

Jane’s leadership coincided with the most profoundly challenging environment in Wales, which was not of her making. Firstly the coalition, then being a very pro EU party in a very pro Brexit country and, perhaps the federal party’s focus on the Blue Wall and soft Tories has only reinforced the damage of the first. I wonder if Lloyd-George himself would have managed to rebuild our fortunes to their previous level given the same set of circumstances.

As to what happens next, I understand that Welsh Lib Dems will debate an amendment to the leadership rules that would allow people who were not MPs or MSs to stand, but that this would be debated after nominations close for the current contest.  That will be an interesting debate.

But tonight, we should be focusing on Jane and thanking her for all she has done and looking forward to what she will do in the Senedd in the future.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social