Huw Lewis

Huw Lewis
Member of the Welsh Assembly for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
In office 6 May 1999 – 6 April 2016
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Dawn Bowden
Minister for Education and Skills
In office 26 June 2013 – 7 May 2016
First Minister	Carwyn Jones
Deputy	Ken Skates
Preceded by	Leighton Andrews
Succeeded by	Kirsty Williams
Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty
In office 14 March 2013 – 26 June 2013
First Minister	Carwyn Jones
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Jeff Cuthbert
Minister for Housing, Regeneration & Heritage
In office 2011–2013
First Minister	Carwyn Jones
Deputy Minister for Children
In office 2009–2011
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan Carwyn Jones
Deputy Minister for Economy & Transport
In office 31 May 2007 – 18 July 2007
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Deputy Minister for Social Justice & Regeneration
In office May 2003 – 31 May 2007
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Deputy Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning
In office October 2000 – 16 April 2001
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Government Whip
In office May 1999 – October 2000
First Minister	Alun Michael
Preceded by	Post established
Personal details
Born	(1964-01-17) 17 January 1964 (age 60) Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Spouse	Lynne Neagle
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Teacher, political advisor
Website	Welsh Labour

Huw Lewis (born 17 January 1964) is a Welsh Labour Co-operative politician who served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2013 to 2016. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Lewis represented the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency in the National Assembly for Wales from 1999 to 2016.

Born in Merthyr Tydfil and brought up in Aberfan, he attended the University of Edinburgh. Active in the local Scottish Labour Party, he worked for both Labour Party leader John Smith and later Donald Dewar. Lewis campaigned for a Scottish Assembly alongside Edinburgh Labour Club colleagues Douglas and Wendy Alexander, and Pat McFadden.^[1]

Returning to South Wales, Lewis worked briefly as a chemistry teacher at Afon Taf High School, before working full-time for the Labour Party.

Elected to the position of Assistant General Secretary of Welsh Labour, he organised the campaign for the Labour "Yes" Vote campaign in 1997, that lead to the creation of the Welsh National Assembly.

Elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 as a Labour and Co-operative Party candidate to represent Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. He has been party Whip in the Assembly, a post he resigned following the resignation of Alun Michael as First Secretary. He has also been Deputy Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning in October 2000, a post he resigned following the use of a landfill site in Trecatti, within his constituency, for the disposal of carcasses during the foot and mouth crisis (16 April 2001).

He was re-elected in 2003 and was appointed Deputy Minister for Social Justice and Regeneration in May 2003. In the Third Assembly he was appointed Deputy Minister for the Economy and Transport on 31 May 2007 but announced to the media that due to his private opposition to One Wales coalition deal with Plaid Cymru he had been sacked on 18 July 2007,^[2] having been the only one of Labour's then 26 AMs to vote against Labour's coalition with Plaid Cymru.^[3]

On 26 June 2013 in light of the resignation of Leighton Andrews, Lewis was appointed Minister for Education and Skills.^[4] Not being a Welsh language speaker, that brief was returned to First Minister Carwyn Jones.

In January 2016, Lewis announced that he would leave the Assembly at the election in May of that year.^[5]

Lewis is married to his second wife Lynne Neagle, the Labour Assembly member for Torfaen and they have a son.

In August 2021 Lewis was appointed as the Political and Membership Officer for Wales at the Co-operative Party ^[6]

• The Wales Yearbook 2006
• BBC Wales 18 May 2007

• Website of the Welsh Assembly Government Archived 15 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine