Bethan Sayed
Bethan Sayed MS (née Jenkins, born 9 December 1981) is a Welsh politician. She represented the South Wales West Region for Plaid Cymru as a Member of the Senedd from 2007 to 2021.
Sayed was born in Aberdare, the daughter of poet Mike Jenkins.[1] She grew up in Merthyr Tydfil, where both her parents were involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement of the 1980s and early 1990s.[2] Her brother is the Channel 4 News reporter Ciaran Jenkins.
She was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, near Pontypridd.[3] She graduated with a BScEcon degree in International Politics and International History at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 2005.[4][5]Through student politics, she was elected to the Aberystwyth Guild of Students executive, and was serving as Guild President by 2004.[6] With the organisation Cymru X she has served as a national organiser of the party's youth wing.[7]
In 2006, Jenkins was selected as Plaid Cymru's lead candidate for the South West Wales Regional list and was duly elected in the subsequent elections of May 2007.[8][9] Jenkins was initially Plaid Cymru's Child Poverty and Culture Spokesperson for the Plaid Cymru group at the National Assembly, and sat on the Communities and Culture committee, Audit committee, and the Petitions Committee.[citation needed]
In 2012, Jenkins was appointed Plaid's spokesperson for Heritage, Welsh language and Sport.[10][11] She is chairperson for the Assembly's Cross Party Eating Disorder Group, and formed a new cross party group on human rights.[12] Jenkins has been an outspoken republican. Alongside her Plaid Cymru colleague, Leanne Wood, she is a member of the group Republic.[13][14]
In 2018, she married and announced she would be changing her surname to Sayed for both personal and professional purposes.[15]
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