Representing Rural Wales in Westminster: Ben Lake MP

Elected as Plaid Cymru’s youngest ever MP, Ben Lake has represented the seat of Ceredigion in the Westminster parliament since 2017. Despite his relatively short career, he has quickly established himself as a respected spokesperson on a number of key issues such as rural affairs, education, and the constitution against the background of the ‘Brexit Wars’ and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this interview we catch up with Ben to discuss the difficult recent period in Plaid Cymru’s history, the upcoming leadership election, the challenges of representing the issues of rural Wales in the union parliament, Brexit, electoral reform in Wales, and the effects of the upcoming new electoral constituencies for representatives and citizens. You can find Ben on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/BenMLake This pod brings to an end the third year of Hiraeth, we hope you have enjoyed the podcast and the live events, if you have attended any of them. We’re going to be taking a couple of weeks off now while we plan for the year to come. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please be in touch with us. You can find Hiraeth on most social platforms @HiraethPod, including Twitter: https://twitter.com/HiraethPod If you are enjoying the pod, please leave us a rating or review in your podcast app or on YouTube and, if you are able to do so, please consider supporting us from just £3/month: http://www.patreon.com/hiraethpod