Plaid Cymru elects new leader

Leanne Wood becomes the first woman and first non-Welsh speaker to lead the Welsh Party in its 87-year history.

Leanne Wood becomes the first woman and first non-Welsh speaker to lead the Welsh Party in its 87-year history.

The party's leadership election was triggered after Ieuan Wyn Jones announced he would be standing down after a disappointing election result that left Plaid out of government.

Mr Jones, who was 12 years in charge of Plaid Cymry, took the party into government for the first time in its history and secured a referendum on a lawmaking Welsh Parliament.

Incoming leader Leanne Wood faces the task to revive Plaid Cymru's fortunes as the party not trails behind Labour and the Conservatives in the Welsh National Assembly.

Ms Wood, 40, a former probation officer and lecturer in social work from South Wales, unexpectedly won a decisive victory in the leadership contest.

A republican from the left-wing of the party, who was once expelled from the Welsh Assembly for calling the Queen "Mrs Windsor", Ms Wood said she expects to see an independent Wales in her lifetime.

A BBC Wales poll released in March, before the leadership contest results, suggested that support for Welsh independence remains low at 7 percent.