Mike Hamilton will head the Party’s list for the Casnewydd Islwyn (Newport and Islwyn) constituency at the 2026 Senedd election following a party selection process in the constituency.
Casnewydd Islwyn is one of the new constituencies for the 2026 Welsh Parliament elections, covering the Westminster constituencies of Newport East and Newport West and Islwyn.
Dr Mike Hamilton is a former Merchant Navy Engineer and archaeologist, who is well known in Newport for his community campaigning. He is a former Deputy Leader of Newport Council. Speaking following his selection, Dr Hamilton thanked local Party members for backing him, and said:
Wales needs change after 26 years of mismanagement. We need proper strategic management of the Welsh economy, not endless money wasting on vanity projects. We need to fix the fundamental problems with the Welsh NHS, where Welsh patients wait much longer than English patients for key operations, despite equivalent per-patient spending. And we need to ensure that Wales shows moral leadership on Gaza, where war crimes and human rights abuses have been met with a supine response by the UK Labour Government.
Mike Hamilton will be joined on the Party list for the constituency by John Miller.
Meanwhile, Kevin Wilkins will head the Party’s list for the Sir Fynwy Torfaen constituency at the 2026 Senedd election following a party selection process in the constituency.
Sir Fynwy Torfaen is one of the new constituencies for the 2026 Welsh Parliament elections, covering the Westminster constituencies of Monmouthshire and Torfaen.
Kevin Wilkins lives in Abergavenny, having returned to Wales after 30 years living and working around Cambridge. He has long experience of successful community campaigning; over the years, he has successfully fought to save a library, a post office and a bus service when they were under threat and he helped save an avenue of cherry trees from the axe. If elected, improving our NHS and protecting our rivers would be his top priorities.
Speaking following news of his selection, Mr Wilkins said:
I am honoured to have been selected as a Liberal Democrat candidate for Sir Fynwy Torfaen.
Monmouthshire and Torfaen contain very different communities all of which face real challenges at the moment. Our NHS in Wales is really struggling, the economy is stalling and our beautiful local rivers are dying. We need better answers than those offered by Labour and the Tories.
I look forward to campaigning alongside Brendan and my Lib Dem friends and colleagues to offer a fair, green and humane alternative to the failings of decades of Labour and Tory rule.
Kevin Wilkins will be joined on the Party list for the constituency by Brendan Roberts, a community councillor and local campaigner in Henllys.
The Liberal Democrats secured over 3.5 million votes at last year’s general election, becoming the largest third party in the UK since 1923 with 72 MPs. The Party built a brand for itself on tackling sewage pollution in local rivers and seas, proposing plans to prioritise social care to fix the NHS and supporting small and medium-sized businesses.
In recent months, the Party has been holding the new Labour Government to account on the sky-high NHS waiting lists in Wales, campaigning against Labour’s rise in national insurance and calling on Labour to cancel tax breaks for the big banks instead of cutting vital support for people with disabilities.
The 2026 elections will be conducted under a proportional representation system, with 6 Members of the Senedd per constituency. This means that multiple political parties will be represented in each area and candidates for smaller parties have a good chance of getting elected.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats are heading into the Senedd elections with a focus on campaigning for improved access to childcare provision, support for small businesses and investing in social care to tackle the crisis in the Welsh NHS.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Professor Joad sees his play at the Theatre Royal, Northampton
The DVLA's problem with number plates
Is Kier Starmer the new John Major?
A bargain at 23 guineas?
20C night
Chloe
Tom Bailey
David Allen
Nonconformistradical
9 Comments
To win one of the new Senedd seats in a six-member constituency the Welsh Party will need to poll 12% (as an absolute minimum) to even have a fighting chance of winning the sixth seat.
More in Common’s polling last month had the Lib Dems in sixth place in Wales. In 2021 only huge amounts of English money and staff support from the Federal Campaigns Department saved Jane Dodds’ seat in Mid & West Wales. Will history repeat itself next year, under a far more challenging electoral system?
@Lyell Yardarms
I am more optimistic about our chances. The new constituency of Gwynedd Maldwyn has been created by combining the Westminster constituencies of Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr. We achieved 12.2% in the former and 15% in the latter at the 3924 election and since we did better in the more populous seat, our average across the new constituency should be around 15%. This should be enough to win one of the 6 list seats that will be available.
Sorry for typo – 2024 election 😊
It is true to say that in Montgomeryshire Glyndwr the Lib Dems with the able Glyn Preston won 15%. However last time the Lib Dems won 12.2% in Meirionydd Dwyfor was in 2010. At the 2024 General Election the Lib Dems received just over 3%.
I would not bet against Cllr Preston though who is the lead candidate this time.The latest poll shows the Lib Dems ahead of both Labour and the Greens in this seat and in Ceredigion Pembrokeshire. It is a matter of persuading those parties’ voters to vote tactically for the Lib Dems in those constituencies rather than having a mix of Plaid Cymru, Reform and the odd Tory Members of the Senedd.
@ Gwyn Williams What I noticed to be particularly sad and alarming was a local council by-election held in Criccieth in February last year.
Lib Dem history buffs will know that Criccieth was the childhood (and retirement) home of David Lloyd George, the site of the Lloyd George Museum , and finally his burial on the banks of the river Dwyfor. As a boy he hard carved his initials on the bridge over the river ………. they can still be seen today.
Result in Criccieth , February 2024 :
Plaid Cymru: 381
Independent: 129
Welsh Liberal Democrats: 11
Welsh Conservatives: 9
this should have sent alarm bells ringing both in Wales and London. Whether it did is open to speculation……… it would be reassuring to know if it did.
@Brenda – see the correct result here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/W07000096. Wikipedia is misleading – we finished sixth.
@David Raw – The Criccieth ward does not include Lloyd George’s childhood home and burial site – they are both in Llanystumdwy – but even if it did I am not sure how that would influence a council by-election held some 80 years after his death. David Steel was born in Kirkcaldy and Gladstone in Liverpool (Riverside), but we lost our deposit in those constituencies in 2024. Similarly I note that Labour tend not to do terribly well in Keir Starmer’s birthplace, Surrey.
LDHQ (and indeed Cardiff HQ) don’t give a monkeys about council by-elections unless they take place in a held seat, a target seat… or Hull.
You’d have thought having the Lloyd George Museum in Criccieth might have reminded more than 11 voters to vote Lib Dem. But David Raw has explained why not. Our hero blotted his copybook by vandalising the bridge…!
I’m grateful to Lyell Yardarms for pointing out that the Lloyd George museum and LLG’s Burial place are not in the modern Criccieth ward. The fact that they are well within walking distance at a mere 1.4 miles from the centre of Criccieth is a modern anomaly.
When he goes on to say, “LDHQ (and indeed Cardiff HQ) don’t give a monkeys about council by-elections unless they take place in a held seat, a target seat… or Hull”, he confirms my concerns and underlines my point.
It would be interesting and revealing to check out the current state of the Lib Dem parliamentary seats lost in 2015 situated outside the range of bungee jumping in “Middle England”.
@ David Allen Quite right, David. LLG was always a bit of a rascal…… but more to do with financial matters and physical leisure pursuits than with the creative arts.
(@Gwyn Williams – Please check your emails!)