Jane Dodds

Jane Dodds (born 13 September 1963) is a Welsh politician who has served as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats since 2017. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire at the seat's 2019 by-election, but was an MP for only three months before being defeated in the general election later the same year. In May 2021, Dodds was elected to the Senedd on the Mid and West Wales list. She is the only Liberal Democrat MS in the Senedd.

Early life and career
Dodds was born and raised in a Welsh-speaking family in Wrexham, North Wales. She attended Ysgol Morgan Llwyd before studying social care at Cardiff University.

After university she trained to become a social worker, and worked for the Salvation Army in Child Protective Services for 27 years before being elected. During this time she also worked in a number of local authorities and for Cafcass, and also at one stage led the Children's Section of the Refugee Council.

She currently lives in Hay-on-Wye with her husband Patrick.

London
Dodds moved to London in early 2000 and was a member of the Labour Party until 2003. Being a strong opponent of military intervention, she left the party following its decision to take part in the invasion of Iraq in early 2003. In 2005 she joined the Liberal Democrats following a meeting with Susan Kramer – who was at the time the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park – and quickly became active in the local Richmond party.

Dodds stood for Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council for the Liberal Democrats in the 2006 local elections, and was elected as one of three councillors in the North Richmond ward. In 2008 she was appointed as Cabinet Member for Performance in the Lib Dem-run administration, where she was responsible for the performance of the authority and ensuring that residents obtained value for money. She narrowly failed to retain her seat in 2010 by a narrow margin of 19 votes, despite obtaining the highest vote among the three Liberal Democrat candidates.

She also contested a by-election for the same ward in 2012, following the resignation of one of the sitting Conservative councillors. During the by-election she was the victim of false leaflets produced in her name, which were produced to look like official Liberal Democrat literature. She narrowly missed out on re-election by 146 votes.

Wales
In November 2012, Dodds returned to Wales and moved to Welshpool to help care for her elderly mother. Early the following year she was selected as the parliamentary candidate for Montgomeryshire, which Alex Carlile and later Lembit Öpik had held for the Liberal Democrats from 1983 to 2010. Dodds contested the seat in both the 2015 and 2017 general elections, as well as the Welsh Assembly constituency of Montgomeryshire in 2016. She came second on all three occasions, the Welsh Conservatives retaining both seats.

Dodds was elected as the Welsh Liberal Democrats Leader in November 2017, defeating Aberaeron Councillor Elizabeth Evans by 13% in an all-member ballot.

As an MP
In March 2019, Dodds was selected as the party's Westminster candidate for Brecon and Radnorshire. As candidate for the constituency, Dodds attacked then-Conservative leadership candidate Boris Johnson's comments about immigrant communities where English is allegedly not spoken as a first language, describing Johnson, in Welsh, as out of touch with communities in Wales. Dodds won the by-election on 1 August 2019.

After serving for 97 days, she failed to retain her seat at the general election of 12 December, becoming one of the shortest-serving members at Westminster. The female MPs with the shortest continuous service are Labour's Ruth Dalton in 1929, at 92 days, and the Scottish National Party's Margo MacDonald who subsequently equalled that in 1973–74.

In the Senedd
Dodds led her party into the 2021 Senedd election and gained a seat on the list vote in Mid and West Wales, the only seat in the Senedd to be retained by the party. The seat was only held by 714 votes.

Health
In the Senedd, Jane Dodds has been critical of Welsh Labour's running of the NHS, campaigning against long ambulance waiting times, particularly in rural areas such as her own constituency of Mid and West Wales where services are generally poorer than their urban counterparts. Dodds has called for a priority in investment in social care across Wales in order to reduce stress on A&E services and ambulances being backed up because patients cannot be discharged from emergency departments.

Dodds has called for the extension of safe staffing levels for nursing in Wales to cover mental health inpatient wards and community nursing. The original legislation on safe staffing levels for nurses was introduced by former Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams in 2016.

Since being elected to the Senedd, Jane Dodds has focused heavily on improving access to dental care in Wales stating that dental care in Wales has "all but collapsed" and that Welsh Labour have allowed a "two-tier system where the well-off can afford to go private and those, who are probably in the highest need, on lower incomes are left waiting in agony for treatment, unable to register for an NHS dentist".

To solve the dentist crisis, Dodds presented a plan calling for a number of measures including: training more dental nurses and hygienists and widening the scale of work they are allowed to carry out; increasing per-capita spending from the current £47 to match the levels of Scotland (£55) and Northern Ireland (£57); setting health board targets for waiting times and appointments and integrating primary dental care more closely with other NHS primary care.

Rural affairs and agriculture
Dodds opposed the UK Conservative Government's trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, stating they were one-sided and that the Conservatives had sold Welsh farmers down the river by allowing cheaper products with lower standards into the UK market. She also called for future trade deals to be put to the UK Parliament for a vote and for impact assements to be carried out on the impact of trade deals for all regions of the UK.

In 2023, Jane Dodds secured a key amendment to the Welsh Agriculture Bill to ensure there is Welsh Government support available to farmers who are looking to establish small-scale renewable energy production on their land and to support the agricultural industry in making changes to increase energy efficiency in their businesses.

The environment and public transport
Jane Dodds supports action on climate change and has opposed to opening of new coal mines in Wales and has called on the Welsh and UK Government's to prioritise investment in new industries, such as green hydrogen, in former mining communities.

Dodds is supportive of greater investment in offshore wind in Wales alongside small-scale hydropower and tidal power. She has also called for the cutting of red tape on planning rules for offshore wind in order to boost moves towards a "green industrial revolution".

Dodds has opposed potential cuts by the Welsh Labour Government to bus services in Wales, a move which she has stated would leave rural communities like hers even more isolated. She has also supported the concept of free-travel for under-25s to tackle climate change, increase social mobility and revitalise routes with low ridership. She has also called on the Welsh Government to investigate subsidised public transport, pointing to similar schemes in Spain and Germany.

Jane Dodds has supported proposals to re-open the Aberystwyth-Carmarthen rail line pointing out that it would cost a fraction of the Barnett Formula consequentials Wales should in her opinion receive from HS2.

Dodds has campaigned for the introduction of hourly rail services on the Cambrian Line in Montgomeryshire and Ceredigion.

Devolution and electoral reform
Dodds supports the greater devolution of powers to Wales and the creation of a federal UK. She also supports the findings of the Silk Commission for the devolution of justice to Wales.

Dodds supports implementing electoral reform across the UK including at Westminster, the Senedd and in local elections. She has supported introducing proportional representation in the Senedd under the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) system. She has criticised Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru for not backing STV and opting for closed lists under current Senedd reform plans.

Foreign policy
Jane Dodds opposed and campaigned against Brexit. She has since supported rebuilding economic ties with the EU, restoring freedom of movement and eventually rejoining the single market.

Dodds was against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and left the Labour Party due to its role in the invasion.

Dodds is a supporter of global human rights and has criticised the Welsh Labour Government for engaging with authoritarian regimes, including criticising Welsh Labour Leader Mark Drakeford for being one of the only UK politicians to visit Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Jane Dodds has expressed support for Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country and has called on the UK Government to continue to arm Ukraine as well as provide financial support, do more to sanction Russia and support Ukrainian refugees in the UK.