Former Olympian among new candidates for general election

Former Olympian Marc Jenkins decided to stand as the Conservative Party candidate in the general election after a heated discussion with friends in a pub.

“I thought, 'If I'm willing to complain, I should be willing to do something,'” he said.

More than 4,500 candidates are running on this year's ballot, a record number and a 35.7% increase from the 2019 poll.

Mr Jenkins, who represented Great Britain in triathlon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, is one of several first-time candidates standing for election.

Mr Jenkins, 47, is from Gower, near Swansea, and said he did not think his candidacy would be successful because he had no political experience.

“I had a massive case of imposter syndrome,” he said.

“I wanted to be able to vote for someone like me who represented completely normal people.”

Mr Jenkins’ grandfather was a miner and he grew up in a Labour family, voting for the party for most of his life. However, he said he had “fundamentally Conservative principles” and joined the party after Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister.

“I thought that as citizens we should have a choice in who runs the country. So I joined the Conservative Party and then I got interested and read a bit more about politics,” he said.

Also present in Gower are Tonia Antoniazzi for the Labor Party, Franck Banza for the Liberal Democrats, Kieran Pritchard for Plaid Cymru and Catrin Thomas for Reform.

Joanna Stallard, 27, is another first-time candidate, standing for Labour in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, north Wales.

“I was able to get very involved in politics in a way that a lot of teenagers don’t get the opportunity to do,” she said.

She expressed concern about online abuse directed at female politicians, referring to the attack on Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen last month, saying it gave him “food for thought”.

However, she said the face-to-face interactions had been “really encouraging and positive.”

“People have been very receptive to a young person, because how often do they see a young Welsh-speaking woman running for politics?” she said.

She believes the Labor Party is a natural fit for her, praising its record on gender representation and saying she is passionate about “justice, fairness and equal opportunity”.

She also said she was focused on increasing representation on Welsh issues, including the Welsh language, which she described as an “afterthought” in UK-wide politics .

“I focus on opportunity in general, particularly how society treats marginalized people,” she said.

Also in Dwyfor Meirionnydd are Tomos Day for the Conservatives, Phoebe Jenkins for the Liberal Democrats, Lucy Murphy for the Reformers and Liz Saville-Roberts for Plaid Cymru.

Kiera Marshall, 25, who is standing for Plaid Cymru in Cardiff West, entered politics to fight for areas like the one where she grew up, Townhill, Swansea, which she describes as “one of the poorest social areas in Wales”.

“The region was struggling and very stigmatized, and that motivates me to fight for regions like mine,” she said.

At university, she said she was “very aware of the stark difference between me and the other students”.

She joined Plaid Cymru because of the problems facing Wales, which she blames on the Conservative and Labor governments.

“Nearly a third of our children live in poverty,” she said. “I have friends who can't afford to pay their rent. We have families with children in Wales who can't afford to put food on the table.”

She said her party “offers an alternative.”

Ms. Marshall acknowledged that running as a candidate was a significant commitment and that she had taken unpaid leave to campaign.

“I want to go out twice a day. I want to talk to people, but it’s very intense and not everyone has the opportunity to do that,” she said.

Also running in the Cardiff West constituency are Alex Barros-Curtis for the Labor Party, James Robert Hamblin for the Conservatives, Peter Meireon Hopkins for the Reform Party and Manda Rigby for the Liberal Democrats.