Adam Price

Adam Robert Price (born 23 September 1968) is a Welsh politician serving as the Leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018. , he has sat in the Senedd for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, having previously been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency.

Early life and career

Price was born in Carmarthen and grew up in Tycroes. His father, Rufus, was a miner at Betws Colliery. His parents were Welsh speakers, but raised their children to speak English; Price was taught Welsh as a teenager by his brother Adrian. His parents were active in politics, starting a branch of Plaid Cymru in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

He went to Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford. He later studied at Cardiff University, gaining a BA in European Community studies in 1991. He also studied at Saarland University.

After graduating, Price worked as a research associate at Cardiff University's department of city and regional planning. From 1998, he was the managing director of the Newidiem Economic Development Consultancy.

Member of Parliament

Price unsuccessfully contested the Gower seat in 1992 winning 3.5% of the vote. He was elected Member of Parliament for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr in 2001, holding the seat until he stood down in 2010.

In 2002, Price obtained a letter written by Tony Blair to the Romanian Government in support of Lakshmi Mittal's LNM steel company, which was in the process of bidding to buy Romania's state-owned steel industry. This revelation caused controversy, because Mittal had given £125,000 to the British Labour Party the previous year. Although Blair defended his letter as simply "celebrating the success" of a British company, he was criticised because LNM was registered in the Dutch Antilles and employed less than 1% of its workforce in the UK. LNM was a "major global competitor of Britain's own struggling steel industry". Blair's letter hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union. It also had a passage, removed prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend".

In 2004, Price announced his intention to begin a process of impeachment against Tony Blair following controversy over the Iraq War, with the backing of Plaid Cymru and SNP MPs as well as Boris Johnson and Nigel Evans. If successful, it could have seen Blair tried before the House of Lords; however, as expected, the measure failed. Price was ejected from the Commons chamber in 2005 after accusing the Prime Minister of having "misled" Parliament and then refusing to withdraw his comment, in violation of the rules of the House. In 2006, Price opened a three-hour debate on an inquiry into the Iraq War, the first such debate in over two years. The SNP and Plaid Cymru motion proposing a committee of seven senior MPs to review "the way in which the responsibilities of government were discharged in relation to Iraq", was defeated by 298 votes to 273.

Writing in the Welsh language current affairs magazine ''Barn'' in April 2007, Price criticised UK government policy on drugs, indicating his support for their legalisation under medical supervision.The War Is Over Saturday, 21 April 2007
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In August 2007, Price highlighted what he perceived as a lack of a Welsh focus in BBC
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