Lindsay Whittle stood for election in Caerphilly 13 times since 1983 – and on the 14th attempt, he finally succeeded.
In the process, the 72-year-old local boy – nicknamed “Mr Caerphilly” – humiliated the Labour Party, which had held the Senedd seat since its creation in 1999 and the Westminster constituency for over a century.
Born in the miner’s hospital, Mr Whittle lived in a council house and grew up in the town, located to the north of Cardiff, that he now represents.
A lifelong Plaid Cymru activist, his interest in politics was first piqued in the 1960s. He said he even missed an O Level (GCSE) exam in the 1970s because he was out canvassing for the party.
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Mr Whittle was first elected in 1976 to represent the Penyrheol and Trecenydd ward on Rhymney Valley district council, and he was re-elected repeatedly until the council was abolished in 1996.
He then contested the Penyrheol ward on the new Caerphilly County Borough Council, created in 1995, and was elected to represent it seven times. He served as the council’s leader for two periods between 1999 and 2004, and has also served as Plaid Cymru’s group leader on the council since 2022.
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But, despite his success at the local level, Mr Whittle was only able to secure election to the then Welsh Assembly once in six attempts since its creation in 1999, becoming an MS on the South Wales East list 2011, before losing his seat in 2016.
In those five years in Cardiff, he was appointed Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Social Services, Children, and Equal Opportunities, and he was able to work on his key political interests of housing and local government, as well as combating homelessness.
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Election by the people of his hometown of Caerphilly has always eluded him, however, having lost the 13 other elections for Westminster and the Senedd that he has stood in throughout a lifetime in Welsh politics.
But that all changed last night when he was elected with a majority of nearly 4,000 votes to take over from the late Hefin David, the beloved Labour representative to whom he paid tribute in his victory speech.
Speaking to our chief political correspondent Jon Craig as dawn broke over the town he was born in and now represents, Mr Whittle said: “I would need to be a poet to put into words how I genuinely feel about the honour that all the people of Caerphilly have bestowed upon me.
“Almost half of the people who went out to vote, just 2% short of half of the people, put their confidence in Lindsay Whittle and Plaid Cymru. I cannot tell you what an honour that is.”
He added: “Retirement is not for me. I’m not the sort of guy who relaxes on beaches. In fact, I don’t think I ever relax. It’s people. It’s people that make me carry on.”
