There is a by-election for the Welsh Assembly in the North Wales constituency of Alyn and Deeside on February 6th.

This is an opportunity for the Welsh Liberal Democrats to begin their revival and renewal after a challenging time.

The election is being fought in difficult circumstances following the suicide of the Labour politician, Carl Sergeant in November, and his son has been selected as the Labour candidate in the by-election.

We have a brilliant candidate in Donna Lalek, who joined the party just over a year ago, was born and brought up in the constituency,is a founder member of the Liberal Democrat inspired “Everyone Matters” movement and is a community councillor.

This is a plug for your support as we desperately need more help in every part of campaigning.  Sal Brinton has been to support us, and Vince Cable comes up at the end of January.

You will be warmly welcomed if you can make it up to North Wales, so please think if you can join us.

The by-election is not only an opportunity for us to build capacity as a party, but is the first opportunity in a constituency election to consider how issues such as how the Brexit negotiations are beginning to impact on an area that voted out. 

A small demonstration of this played out last week; a man walked in to the campaign office off the street one evening, and wanted to talk about a range of issues. He had usually voted Conservative and had voted out in the EU Referendum. He now believes his vote was based on untrue information. He was concerned at the way the Tories were handling Brexit and supported EU citizens staying in the UK, recognising them as hard working and committed people. He was someone who may be changing his mind and could vote to stay in if there was a referendum on the final deal.

That brief conversation gave me hope. Hope that the Welsh Liberal Democrats can reach out to people who voted out and give them a reason to vote for us. So it is even more important that we do well in this by-election. I know how supportive Liberal Democrats all over the UK are of us here in Wales.  So please come and help us to achieve a good election vote and to kick start our journey back to relevance for the Welsh people. You can find out details of how to campaign in the by-election by telephoning the office on 07543710881, and on the Facebook page Donna Lalek LD.

Thankyou/Diolch.

* Jane Dodds is Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats