Hardly a "First Eleven " for Newport West.

Eleven candidates are to fight the Newport West parliamentary by-election on 4 April, it has been announced.

Ruth Jones is fighting to keep the seat for Labour, and will face Matthew Evans from the Conservatives and Jonathan Clark of Plaid Cymru.

Neil Hamilton is standing for UKIP, as is Ryan Jones for the Lib Dems.

The Greens, the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, Renew, the SDP, For Britain, and the Democrats and Veterans party are also taking part in the poll.

The by-election was triggered by the death of Paul Flynn, who had been the local Labour MP since 1987.

Newport City Council announced the list of candidates Yesterday

Newport West - the candidates

• Labour - Ruth Jones
• Conservatives - Matthew Evans
• Plaid Cymru - Jonathan T Clark
• UKIP - Neil Hamilton
• Liberal Democrats - Ryan Jones
• Green Party - Amelia Womack
• Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party - Richard Suchorzewski
• Renew - June Davies
• SDP - Ian McLean
• For Britain - Hugh Nicklin
• Democrats and Veterans - Phillip Taylor

Hardly a great choice and I suppose it could be that the result may be in exactly the above order and depending on close they are Plaid may be the only party smiling.

Renew is a centrist political party in the United Kingdom. The party was set up to provide an alternative for moderate voters following the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum in 2016. The party describes itself as wanting to reform existing political structures, and does not identify with either left or right ideology The party is actively welcoming candidates and members from non-political backgrounds.^[

Four candidates appear to be from from UKIP and its splinters


For Britain is a minor far-right political party in the United Kingdom, founded by the anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters after she was defeated in the 2017 UKIP leadership election.Waters left UKIP and formed For Britain after she and her supporters were described as "Nazis and racists" by Henry Bolton and UKIP's former leader  The name is taken from her UKIP leadership campaign slogan, "Anne Marie For Britain". Waters said that the party would "speak to the forgotten people". So Hugh  Nicklin may wellbe a former Ukip member

The Democrats and Veterans Party (DVP) is a political party in the United Kingdom.

The party was founded in 2018 by former UKIP member and Gulf War veteran Gavin Felton and other ex-servicemen of the British Armed Forces. John Rees-Evans, previously a UKIP leadership candidate, was announced as the first party leader, and Gavin Felton named as chairman.

Phillip Taylor may well be a former Ukip member

Neil Hamilton is a current Ukip AM]

Ian McLean SDP may well be the Ian Mclean who stood for UKIP for the Cynon Valey in the 2017 General Election


Richard Suchorzewski, Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party is a former Chair of UKIP Wales,] who defected from the Conservative Party in 2004, and stood for the leadership of UKiP in 2006 where he finished second to Niglel Farage

So plenty of choice for the far right and Leave (I accept they are not the same) in Newport West .

Remain voters seem to have the choice  between Plaid, Liberal, Democrats , Greens or Renew, what the veiw of Ruth Jones (Labour) is could be interesting and much may depend whether she supports Corbyn's Lexit  position or calls for a People's Vote  indeed she may well be in a cleft stick of  either backing the Leadership or the majority of her party's MPs .

Much may depend on whether we leave the EU a week before the election with some kind of deal, No deal, an extension of Article 50 and the possibility of a Second Referendum.