Lesley Griffiths AM (born 1960) is a Welsh Labour politician. She worked as a secretary to John Marek and the constituency assistant to Ian Lucas

Ian Lucas

Ian Colin Lucas is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Wrexham since 2001...

, successive Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Wrexham

Wrexham (UK Parliament constituency)

Wrexham is a parliamentary constituency in North Wales which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

, and was elected to the National Assembly for Wales

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

 from the Wrexham

Wrexham (National Assembly for Wales constituency)

Wrexham is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the North Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to nine constituency...

 constituency in 2007. In 2011, she was appointed Minister for Health and Social Services

Welsh Assembly Government

The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...

.

2003 campaign

After a Labour Party inquiry, where Marek was first contacted by telephone half an hour before the result was announced, the non-selection was upheld, and Marek decided to fight to retain his seat as an Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

. Griffiths faced an uphill battle during the campaign; an early poll showed Marek beating her by 40% to 29%. On polling day, Griffiths had closed the gap but was beaten by 973 votes.

2007 election

Having been a supporter of Wrexham Football Club

Wrexham A.F.C.

Wrexham Football Club are a professional football team based in Wrexham, north-east Wales, who play in the English football pyramid.Founded in 1872, they are one of the oldest surviving football clubs in Britain and the oldest professional club in Wales...

, Griffiths was elected to the board of the Wrexham Supporters Trust. In December 2005 she was selected again as Labour candidate for the Wrexham constituency for the 2007 Assembly elections. She benefited from high-profile support as the party saw an opportunity to recapture the seat; John Marek appealed to the large Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 immigrant population by translating his election material into Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

. However, Griffiths increased her numerical vote while Marek's vote fell, and she won the seat by 1,250.

Ministerial responsibility

Griffiths was appointed Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills in December 2009. After the 2011 election, she was promoted to the Minister for Health and Social Services.

Offices held