Shadow Cabinet of Ieuan Wyn Jones

Jones Shadow Cabinet
Shadow Cabinet of Wales
2000–2007
Jones's official portait, c. 2002
Date formed	9 August 2000
Date dissolved	19 July 2007
People and organisations
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Leader of the Opposition and Shadow First Minister[a]	Ieuan Wyn Jones
Deputy Leader of the Opposition	Rhodri Glyn Thomas (2003–2007)
Member party	Plaid Cymru
Status in legislature	Official Opposition 17 / 60 (28%) (2000) 12 / 60 (20%) (2003) 15 / 60 (25%) (2007)
History
Elections	2003 assembly election 2007 assembly election
Legislature terms	1st National Assembly for Wales 2nd National Assembly for Wales 3rd National Assembly for Wales
Predecessor	Shadow Cabinet of Dafydd Wigley
Successor	Shadow Cabinet of Nick Bourne (shadow cabinet) Frontbench Team of Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid Cymru opposition frontbench; 2011)

Ieuan Wyn Jones became Leader of the Opposition in Wales after being elected as President of Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales, on 3 August 2000. Jones had previously served in these roles in an acting capacity on the behalf of his predecessor Dafydd Wigley from December 1999 to February 2000. He formed his shadow cabinet on 9 August and, like his predecessor, appointed himself Shadow First Secretary of Wales and Shadow Assembly Secretary for Finance. Members of his shadow cabinet were initially known as shadow assembly secretaries until October 2000. From that month, members were known as shadow ministers, with Jones's titles also changing to Shadow First Minister of Wales and Shadow Minister for Finance, after a similar change was made to the names of ministerial posts in Rhodri Morgan's coalition government between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Jones's shadow cabinet was dissolved after the formation of a coalition government between Plaid Cymru and Morgan's Labour Party on 19 July 2007.

Jones introduced several new positions to the Shadow Cabinet, and in 2003 he appointed Rhodri Glyn Thomas as the first deputy leader of the opposition and Plaid Cymru. Jones's predecessor Dafydd Wigley was appointed to succeed Jones as Shadow Minister for Finance in 2001, serving in this role until 2003. After Plaid Cymru lost seats in the 2003 assembly election, Jones reshuffled his shadow cabinet and announced his intention to resign as party leader later in the year, though most shadow ministers stayed in the same posts. In September 2003, he resigned as President of Plaid Cymru but won another leadership election for the position of Leader of the Plaid Cymru Group in the National Assembly. He therefore remained Leader of the Opposition despite resigning from the overall party leadership. Jones reshuffled his shadow cabinet again in November 2003, making several changes to its composition. He made a "mini-reshuffle" in November 2005 because of structural changes to the committee system of the National Assembly, making minor changes to the Shadow Cabinet's composition.

In 2006, Plaid Cymru's leadership was restructured and Jones was elected to serve again as the overall leader of the party. After the 2007 assembly election, he entered into negotiations with Nick Bourne's Conservatives and Mike German's Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government. After these negotiations fell through, Jones negotiated an alternative coalition deal with Rhodri Morgan's Labour Party, forming a coalition government in July 2007 and becoming Deputy First Minister of Wales. Plaid Cymru became a party of government, leaving Bourne's Conservative Party to form the Official Opposition as the second largest non-governing party. Bourne became Leader of the Opposition and formed a new shadow cabinet; Plaid Cymru left government after the 2011 assembly election but did not become the Official Opposition again until after the 2016 assembly election, when it superseded the Conservative Party as the second largest party in the assembly.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).