David John Rowlands is a Welsh politician, who was a Member of the Senedd (MS) for

South Wales East South Wales East () is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, w ...

from

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

. Elected as an MS for the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP), Rowlands joined the

Brexit Party Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant ...

in 2019. He joined the

Independent Alliance for Reform The Independent Alliance for Reform ( cy, Y Gynghrair Annibynnol dros Ddiwygio) was a political group in the Senedd. It was founded in October 2020, and had three members. The party was dissolved in 2021 when all three of its Senedd Members lost ...

in October 2020.

Biography

Born in the Welsh mining town of Argoed, he was educated at

Pontllanfraith Pontllanfraith ( cy, Pontllanfraith ) is a large village and community located in the Sirhowy Valley in Caerphilly County Borough, Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is situated adjacent to the town of Blackwood, with t ...

Grammar School obtaining A Levels in economics and geography before studying for a degree in business studies. Rowlands joined UKIP in 1998. Formerly a

(UKIP) Assembly Member, Rowlands resigned to join the

in May 2019. In mid October 2020 he formed a new group in the Senedd, the

, together with fellow MSs

Mandy Jones Amanda Ellen "Mandy" Jones is a British former racing cyclist born in 1962 who won the women's world road race championship in 1982. Biography Jones joined the West Pennine Road Club to ride on Sunday outings. She rode her first race in 1974 ...

and

Caroline Jones Caroline Jones (born June 30, 1990) is an American country music singer, songwriter and radio host. Jones has released a number of albums, the most successful one being ''Bare Feet''. Her most recent album, ''Antipodes'', was released on Novemb ...

Electoral history

During his time in UKIP, Rowlands contested numerous seats for the party in General, Assembly, local and European elections. He contested

New Inn New Inn - ( cy, Y Dafarn Newydd) - is a village and community directly south east of Pontypool, within the County Borough of Torfaen in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It had a population of 5,986 at the 2011 Census. L ...

ward in

Torfaen Torfaen (; cy, Torfaen ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south-w ...

in the

2004 Welsh local election The 2004 Welsh local elections took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of all twenty-two Welsh local government, local authorities in Wales. They were held alongside 2004 United Kingdom local elections, other local elections in the United Kin ...

, where he won 811 votes. In the

2015 UK General election The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Local ...

, Rowlands stood as the UKIP candidate for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. He won 18.7% of the vote, therefore retaining his deposit. He contested Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney in the

2016 National Assembly for Wales election Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...

. He won 4,277 votes, finishing second to

Welsh Labour Welsh Labour ( cy, Llafur Cymru) is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 192 ...

Dawn Bowden Dawn Alison Louise Bowden (born 14 February 1960) is a British Labour Party politician and trade unionist serving as Chief Whip of the Welsh Government and Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport since 2021. Bowden has been the Member of the Sened ...

. In the same election, Rowlands was elected as a Assembly Member for the

, alongside fellow UKIP candidate, Mark Reckless. In the 2017 UK General election, Rowlands stood again for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. He came fourth with 1,484 votes, a reduction in his previous vote share. In the

2021 Senedd election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, Rowlands again stood on the list for South Wales East, this time for

Reform UK Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant p ...

, and also stood as the party’s candidate for Newport East. He was unsuccessful, as were all other Reform and UKIP candidates in that election. Westminster Parliament elections European Parliament elections Welsh Assembly elections (Constituency Seats) Welsh Assembly elections (Regional Seats)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people UK Independence Party members of the Senedd Brexit Party members of the Senedd Wales MSs 2016–2021 People from Caerphilly Welsh politicians