Jonathan Edwards steps down as Plaid Westminster leader.

It does seem rather odd that Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards has stood down as Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, citing personal reasons.

He will be replaced by Arfon MP Hywel Williams.

Mr Edwards said he wanted to concentrate his efforts on being “as good a constituency MP as possible”.

Speculation that he may be planning to jump ship and become a Labour Corbynite sems very unlikely as he pledged his full support for Mr Williams and looked forward to campaigning for the party in May’s Assembly elections.
Mr Edwards said:

 “I will be doing whatever I can to support the campaign and Leanne Wood as leader.”

He first won the seat in 2010, taking over from leading Plaid figure Adam Price, who won UK-wide attention with his bid to impeach Tony Blair over the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Edwards increased his majority from 3,481 to 5,599 in this year’s election. He has a reputation in the Commons as an outspoken opponent of “austerity” policies.
The party’s new Westminster leader, Mr Williams, entered parliament as the MP for Caernarfon in 2001. He increased his majority in Arfon in May from 1,455 to 3,580.
 

My own speculation for what its worth (probably not much) is that Mr Edwards realised the role may lead to the problem of having responsibility without power '

 

Becoming a Privy councilor whigh a Plaid leader could probably expect leads to certain speaking privillages but minds you to the commons .

 

Angus Robertson, the  SNP leader at Westminster, is to become a member of the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee(ISC); believed to be the party's first representative on the high-powered committee.
It has been suggested some within the Conservative Government had qualms about Mr Robertson's appointment, given the SNP's visceral opposition to Britain's nuclear deterrent, but because of the Nationalists' increased number of MPs, making the SNP Westminster's third party, then there was no doubt that it had to have representation on one of the UK Parliament's most influential bodies.

 

However Mr Roberson may find that being privy to certain Information  like that of the " intelligence" behind  the recent Drone attack on a Cardiff jihadist who was one of three men from the city to have joined a group in Syria was killed by the RAF.

According to Prome Minister Cameron 

Both Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan, were British nationals based in Syria who were involved in actively recruiting ISIL sympathisers and seeking to orchestrate specific and barbaric attacks against the west including directing a number of planned terrorist attacks right here in Britain, such as plots to attack high profile public commemorations, including those taking place this summer.

Bringing Mr Roberson into the  Intelligence Bubble may prevent him from commentating on security matters even if he believes its all bollocks.

If he wins on Saturday Jeremy Corbyn will probably face the same problem and find that too much information from establishment sources may be a curse rather than a blessing.