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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nEluned Morgan is poised to become Welsh Labour\u2019s first female leader, at the second attempt.<\/p>\n The circumstances could not be more different to her previous campaign, which struggled to launch.<\/p>\n Back then, a lack of support from other Labour politicians almost kept her off the ballot paper.<\/p>\n Six years later, and after Vaughan Gething\u2019s brief leadership went badly wrong, would-be rivals are bowing out in her favour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If Ms Morgan wins it will be the culmination of a political career that started young and has taken her to three parliaments.<\/p>\n During her previous campaign she called herself a \u201cbit of a disruptor\u201d – perhaps, but she has been a politician almost her whole working life.<\/p>\n She had a political upbringing in Ely, Cardiff. Her father, Bob, was a vicar who led South Glamorgan council. Her mother, Elaine, was a councillor too.<\/p>\n Their home \u201cwas the headquarters for political activity in the west of Cardiff\u201d, she once said.<\/p>\n Future first ministers Rhodri Morgan and Mark Drakeford were part of their political circle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She was educated at Cardiff\u2019s Ysgol Glantaf and, with a scholarship, at the independent Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan.<\/p>\n After university in Hull she worked in television before becoming the youngest member of the European Parliament when elected to it, aged 27, in 1994.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Her ministerial biography says she was only the fifth full-time female politician from Wales \u2013 and the first from Wales to have a baby while in office.<\/p>\n After standing down as an MEP in 2009 she went to work for the energy company SSE.<\/p>\n Granted a peerage in 2011, she went to the House of Lords where, as Baroness Morgan of Ely, she was a shadow minister for Wales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2016 she swapped Westminster\u2019s parliament for the parliament in Cardiff Bay, then still called the assembly, getting elected for the Mid and West Wales region.<\/p>\n Her first leadership bid only got off the ground because outgoing first minister Carwyn Jones lent her a nomination.<\/p>\n Huw Irranca-Davies, one of the few Labour politicians who backed her then, is her running mate now.<\/p>\n Morgan came last behind eventual winner Drakeford and second-placed Gething.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Drakeford appointed her to his government, before elevating her to the toughest job in the cabinet \u2013 health minister \u2013 in 2021.<\/p>\n She inherited the devastating legacy of Covid and soaring waiting times.<\/p>\n Her time in the job has seen industrial action and an acrimonious decision to put north Wales\u2019s underperforming health board back into special measures.<\/p>\n Running the NHS on a tight budget would be \u201chell on earth\u201d, she said in 2022.<\/p>\n It was a characteristically blunt assessment from someone who is known to speak her mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Covid inquiry revealed how she texted colleagues about the Omicron variant, declaring: \u201cWe\u2019re all f*****d!\u201d<\/p>\n She apologised for the fruity language saying, it\u2019s \u201cprobably not what you want\u201d from the daughter of a vicar whose husband, Rhys Jenkins, is a priest too. He is also a GP, and they have two children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There was another apology in June 2022 when she was banned from driving for six months for repeatedly speeding. And she apologised again the following year for a joke about the late Margaret Thatcher and a Conservative reshuffle.<\/p>\n Having gone for the top job once, she might have been expected to enter the contest to succeed Drakeford. But she backed her former rival Gething instead.<\/p>\n Asked if she hoped a new FM would keep her in the health job at the time, she told ITV Wales: \u201cNot necessarily. It\u2019s a very, very tough job I must say.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the hint that she fancied a change, Gething retained her as health secretary \u2013 and she defended him when he came under pressure as leader.<\/p>\n She might be on the verge of getting a new job after all.<\/p>\n If she gets it, being first minister and unifying Welsh Labour after a torrid few months will be an even more difficult task than the one she leaves behind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWho is Eluned Morgan?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
From broadcaster to baroness<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nLeadership ambitions<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nDriving ban<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Senedd Cymru<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n