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Lesley Griffiths

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Lesley Griffiths
(Susan) Lesley Griffiths (born 1960) is a Welsh Labour Party politician. She worked as the constituency assistant to John Marek and Ian Lucas, successive Members of Parliament for Wrexham, and was elected to the National Assembly for Wales from the Wrexham constituency in 2007.

Background
Griffiths worked in the National Health Service at Wrexham Maelor Hospital for twenty years before moving to work as constituency assistant for John Marek, the Member of Parliament for Wrexham; after Marek stood down at the 2001 general election, she moved to work for his successor, Ian Lucas in the same role. She campaigned for a Yes vote in the devolution referendum and was North Wales coordinator of Rhodri Morgan's campaign for the Welsh Labour leadership in 1998. She is married to Gareth Griffiths, who has been a Labour councillor on Wrexham County Borough Council since 1999.

Deselection of John Marek
In 2002 she was mentioned as a possible candidate for the National Assembly for Wales. Early in 2003, the whole of the Labour group on Wrexham council (including her husband) were reported to have threatened to resign from the party if John Marek stood again, having accused him of opposing everything which the group had done; Marek had also strained party loyalty by standing against the party nominee for Deputy Presiding Officer and winning the post. Marek accused his opponents of spreading "smears and lies", but a letter he had written to the Communication Workers Union urging it not to give money to the Labour Party if they disagreed with its policies damaged his position and he was deselected in favour of Griffiths by 84 votes to 80.

2003 campaign
After a Labour Party inquiry the deselection was upheld, and Marek decided to fight to retain his seat as an Independent. Griffiths faced an uphill battle during the campaign; an early poll showed Marek beating her by 40% to 29%. On polling day, Griffiths had closed the gap but was beaten by 973 votes.

2007 election
Having been a supporter of Wrexham Football Club, Griffiths was elected to the board of the Wrexham Supporters Trust. In December 2005 she was selected again as Labour candidate for the Wrexham constituency for the 2007 Assembly elections. She benefited from high-profile support as the party saw an opportunity to recapture the seat; John Marek appealed to the large Polish immigrant population by translating his election material into Polish. However, Griffiths increased her numerical vote while Marek's vote fell, and she won the seat by 1,250.


 

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