Dafydd Wigley

Wigley, Plaid Cymru's leader through the 1997 referendum and the first Assembly election, made the party a serious contender beyond its Welsh-speaking heartlands; in 1999 it won Rhondda and Islwyn, Labour strongholds, and became the official opposition. Earlier, as an MP, he steered the Disabled Persons Act 1981 through as a private member's bill, drawing on his own family's experience. He combined language-centred nationalism with practical welfare politics.