Llinos Medi interview – MP on ‘making ourselves proud of Ynys Môn’

That same year, Ms Medi and her two children were made homeless. A single mother who left school at 16, she shifted her family’s belongings into the back of a car, and later moved into a “shell of a house with no furniture”. ‘How am I going to do this?,’ she thought.

Fast-forward nearly a decade later and she is the newly elected MP of her beloved Ynys Môn, an island which she grew up on and is now desperate to champion - and get the answers she feels its constituents deserve.

READ MORE:

What Llinos Medi said after being elected Ynys Môn’s MP

New Ynys Môn MP asks for ‘specific’ Wylfa plans in House of Commons

Ynys Môn MP says she wants to ‘inspire’ during first Parliament speech

Llinos Medi speaking during the launch of Plaid Cymru's general election campaign in May (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

A farmer’s daughter, Ms Medi has worked as a classroom assistant, a youth worker, and in the care sector. It was 2013 when she first dipped her toe into the political world, having been “pushed” into standing as a county councillor despite believing “nobody would ever vote for me”.

But they did, and in 2017, she became the first woman to lead Isle of Anglesey County Council, and one of the UK’s youngest council leaders. But even after a decade in local government, she took some convincing before deciding to stand for Parliament last year.

“I never in my life thought I’d be the MP of Ynys Môn,” she said.

“Being an elected member and a mother are the two things I’ve dedicated my life to. They (Ms Medi’s teenage son and daughter) had to sit me down and persuade me.

“When I’ve knocked on doors, I’ve always told people: ‘I can’t promise you anything except who I am’, and I’m a hard worker.

“When I was elected in 2013 as the youngest county councillor, it was really challenging, but I then realised the importance of diversity, of people from different backgrounds influencing and contributing, and making sure that not only the stereotypical voice is heard.

“The people that bear the brunt of those decisions are the people who are heard the least in life, but who need a voice more than anyone.”

Llinos Medi with Rhun ap Iorwerth, Ynys Môn MS (Image: Submitted)

At the 2017 local election, Ms Medi told herself that, if the number of Plaid Cymru councillors in Ynys Môn did not increase, she would stand down. The party gained two seats to become the county council’s largest. This, she said, gave her belief that she “must be doing something right”.

Yet a lack of self-confidence has, by Ms Medi’s own admission, been a stumbling block. She did not go to university, and completed a care course instead. During her campaign this year, one “lovely individual” on social media claimed she “wasn’t educated enough to be an MP”.

But having been homeless and vulnerable, and a carer for those in similar predicaments, she now wants to draw on those experiences to help foster a “caring community” in Ynys Môn.

“Every experience I’ve had has enriched me as an individual, and I wouldn’t change them,” she said.

“What hurts me is the stereotyping of individuals who haven’t been to university, who haven’t had that educational journey. It doesn’t mean they’re substandard, or have nothing to offer.

“I don’t want people who have maybe had the same educational journey as me to think they’re inadequate. No-one is.

“I’ve learned much more about life, and about my own strengths, from being vulnerable, being homeless, being a carer of vulnerable people. Maybe that gives me some strength to face the self-confidence issue.”

Llinos Medi (first from left) with her Plaid Cymru colleagues in Westminster (Image: Submitted)

Within the first month of her election on July 5, Ms Medi asked her first question in the House of Commons, requesting “specific plans” from the new Labour government for new nuclear in Wylfa and Trawsfynydd, and made her maiden Parliament speech, when she spoke of her drive to “inspire other women to believe: ‘If she can do it, I can do it’”.

She will be back and forth between London and her constituency now, following the conclusion of Parliament’s summer recess, and is still a county councillor for now as she commits to closing off open casework.

One thing she says she won't be dedicating time to, though, is political points-scoring.

“I hate adversarial politics,” she said.

“The world is difficult enough without creating more challenges. I’m a firm believer in just treating people fairly. We can disagree in a nice way.

“The future of Ynys Môn is really important to me. The nastiness over the last few years was really upsetting, because that’s not how we are.

“The census says there will be 600 less children on Ynys Môn in the next 10 years. I’ve met so many companies who’ve said they’re unable to employ, so there are jobs on the island, but the workforce might not be there.

“What I’d like is a clearer understanding of the current employment needs on the island, and that we keep a hold on our identity.”

Llinos Medi (Image: Submitted)

Wylfa, an old nuclear power station in Ms Medi’s constituency, began generating electricity in 1971 and was decommissioned in 2015.

But plans for a new reactor at the site, which projected up to 6,000 new construction jobs and 1,200 long-term jobs, were paused in 2019 and scrapped altogether in 2021.

The Conservative government purchased the site shortly before this year’s general election, but did not advance plans for the development of a new power station.

As well as getting answers on Wylfa, high on Ms Medi’s to-do list are keeping more young people on the island, driving economic development, and “making ourselves proud of Ynys Môn”, all while being an “honest politician”.

“I’ve had enough of the carrot and stick,” she said.                    

“We need answers. We need to know is this government is serious about nuclear development, and if they are, where Wylfa is in their strategy. And if Wylfa is in their strategy, is it gigawatt or SMR (small modular reactor)?

“I don’t want photos of spades. I want clarity. If it’s a no, that community deserves to know that now. That community means so much to me. I’m here to protect them.

“We have a thriving science park in Gaerwen (M-SParc). We have more young people educated in Ynys Môn than in Bangor. There are growth areas on the island which haven’t been heard about.

“I’m not here for anything for myself. I care because humanity needs people who care. It’s down to us to be the leaders that change things, and to try and be the influence that we want to be.”