Jenny Ann Rathbone (born 12 February 1950) is a

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 1922 ...

and

Co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

politician who has been a

Member of the Senedd A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; cy, Aelodau o'r Senedd; , plural:) (AS)., group=la is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd ...

(MS) since 2011.

Career

She was Labour candidate for Cardiff Central at the 2010 General Election coming second to Liberal Democrat

Jenny Willott Jennifer Nancy Willott OBE (born 29 May 1974) is a British politician. She was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Cardiff Central from 2005 to 2015. Willott became a junior minister in the Department for Business, Innovation and Ski ...

. She was previously a Labour councillor in the London Borough of

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

.Assembly Member – Jenny Rathbone
National Assembly for Wales website. Retrieved 2013-10-22. Rathbone has represented the constituency of Cardiff Central since the Senedd election of May 2011. She won the seat from the Liberal Democrats by 38 votes."'Politics is part of my DNA' – Jenny Rathbone, AM for Cardiff Central"
''GuardianCardiff'', 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2013-10-22. She voted for

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

in Labour's 2015 leadership election. In October 2015 Jenny Rathbone criticised the Welsh Labour government for spending millions on the

M4 Relief Road The M4 relief road, also known as M4 Corridor around Newport (M4CaN), was a proposed motorway, south of the city of Newport, South Wales, intended to relieve traffic congestion on the M4 motorway. Originally proposed by the Welsh Office ...

. First Minister

Carwyn Jones Carwyn Howell Jones (born 21 March 1967) is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the S ...

then removed Rathbone from her chairmanship of the All Wales European Programme Monitoring Committee. In doing so Mr Jones said: "The chair of the programme monitoring committee is an appointment made by the First Minister, because that person, as is made clear in a letter of appointment, is a representative of the (Labour) Welsh Government." He said it is made clear that the "person is required to have particular regards to act in the spirit of collective responsibility, the main principles of the ministerial code." On 5 May 2016 Rathbone was elected for a second term as AM for Cardiff Central, winning by 817 votes.

Controversy

In November 2018 it was reported that Rathbone was facing disciplinary action from the Labour Party for her comments a year earlier in which she suggested that the Jewish community's need for security at synagogues stemmed from a "siege mentality".

Personal life

Jenny Rathbone was born in Liverpool. She speaks fluent French and Spanish. She has two children and lives in

Roath Roath ( cy, Y Rhath) is a district and community to the north-east of the city centre of Cardiff, capital of Wales. There is no community council for the area which is mostly covered by the Plasnewydd electoral ward, and stretches from Adamsdow ...

, Cardiff.

References

External links

Official website
*

Offices held

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rathbone, Jenny 1950 births Living people Labour Co-operative members of the Senedd Wales AMs 2011–2016 Wales MSs 2016–2021 Wales MSs 2021–2026 Female members of the Senedd Councillors in the London Borough of Islington Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Members of the Fabian Society Politicians from Liverpool Women councillors in England