Mandy Jones returned as new North Wales AM after Gill resignation

Mandy Jones has been returned as an Assembly Member for the North Wales region following the resignation of Nathan Gill.​

The Llywydd of the National Assembly for Wales, Elin Jones AM, has been informed by the Returning Officer for the North Wales region of the process having been complated to fill the space left by Nathan Gill’s resignation.

When a regional Assembly seat becomes vacant, the Llywydd informs the Regional Returning Officer for the relevant region.

Where the seat was vacated by a Member who was elected at an Assembly general election from a list of candidates submitted by a political party, in this case UKIP, the Regional Returning Officer is required to contact the next candidate on the list submitted at the time of the general election by that political party.

The next person on the UKIP list is Mandy Jones, who stood in 2016 as a candidate for Clwyd South, and earlier in 2015 for UKIP in the General Election (brief Q&A here).

Once the Regional Returning Officer has established that the person is able and willing to serve, the Regional Returning Officer informs the Llywydd of the name of the person.

When the Llywydd receives notification of the name, that person becomes an Assembly Member. However, he or she cannot undertake the work of an Assembly Member until the oath has been taken.

The Regional Returning Officer informed the Llywydd yesterday that Mandy Jones is able and willing to serve and was therefore returned as an Assembly Member for the North Wales region on that day.

Arrangements are being made for the new Assembly Member for the North Wales Region to take to oath.​

As we reported yesterday (read the detail here) Nathan Gill resigned as AM, only days after saying rumours of such an action were ‘grubby’.