Self-styled party of Wales Plaid Cymru has selected 27 year old Carmen Smith as a peer to take a seat in the House of Lords, despite her openly wanting to scrap the house.
What is even more bizarre is Carmen, who will become The Baroness Smith, came second in the member votes but was promoted to 1st place solely on the basis of her sex.
The former Chief of Staff at the Senedd was chosen as Plaid Cymru’s second life peer having received just 70 votes compared to the 180 received for Elfyn Llwyd, the only male candidate in the top 3 nominations.
Rather than sticking with members votes the returning officer for Plaid Cymru told members by email: “As returning officer, I am pleased to announce the results are as follows and are in accordance with the temporary orders passed by the NEC (National Executive Committee) to promote the representation of women: 1 Carmen Smith; 2 Elfyn Llwyd; 3 Ann Griffith.”
Despite being anti the House of Lords, Ms Smith could now go on to earn around £3,000,000 just from attending the House as well as the lobbying power her title will now bring her.
She is employed by Bute Energy, a controversial wind power company which she is now likely to use her position to lobby for.
The move to ignore member votes based solely on having a female peer has been called reverse sexism and follows on from Plaid Cymru’s Senedd pertners, Welsh Labour’s “closed list” system which will see it have women only lists for some seats at Elections effectively barring men from standing as Welsh Labour candidates.
Despite wanting to scrap the House of Lords, a view shared by Plaid Cymru as a whole, it appears Ms Smith and her party want to have their cake and eat it, but only if its a woman doing the eating!
I’m proud to announce that I have been nominated for a peerage. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead and to fighting for a fair deal for Wales 🏴https://t.co/otKgnMv0PO pic.twitter.com/ZAdUdYdIIL
— Carmen Ria Smith 🇪🇺🏴 (@CarmenRiaSmith) February 9, 2024
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