- Source: Jayne Bryant
Jayne Bryant is a Welsh Labour Party politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government since July 2024. Since May 2016 she has represented Newport West in the Senedd.
Background
Bryant was born in the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport. She attended St Julian's Comprehensive School and completed her studies at Keele University, graduating with a degree in History and Politics.
Political career
She contested the Wales European Parliament constituency as the second-place candidate on the Labour list in 2014, but was not elected. She was subsequently selected as the Labour candidate for Newport West for the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election and was re-elected in at the 2021 Senedd election. She chaired the Senedd's Standards of Conduct committee from 2016 to 2021.
In 2017 she was one of the founders of the Purple Plaques scheme of public markers for remarkable women who lived in Wales.
Bryant supported Mark Drakeford in the 2018 Welsh Labour leadership election.
In December 2023, Jayne became the Co-Chair of Vaughan Gething's Welsh Labour leadership campaign alongside Ken Skates MS. She was appointed Minister for Mental Health and Early Years in the Gething government on 21 May 2024. After Gething stood down on 17 July 2024, Bryant was promoted to the role of Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, replacing Julie James, who had stood down to call for Gething's resignation. Under Gething's successor, Eluned Morgan, as first minister, Bryant retained the role through August, but lost the planning portfolio in Morgan's September 2024 reshuffle.