Secretarial: My heart is in Wales

I Work For... Nia Wyn Jeffreys is PA to Dafydd Wigley, President of Plaid Cymru and MP for Caernarfon

Welsh is my mother tongue but my support for Plaid Cymru does not stem from the Welsh language. It stems from a sense of believing that Wales should be more confident and take greater responsibility for itself. People living outside Wales sometimes ask whether I hate the English, mistakenly associating Plaid Cymru with anti-English, cottage-burning sentiment. I enjoy replying that last year I married an English boy who's both a Unionist and a monarchist - although he's taking Welsh lessons at the moment.

My parents live in Dafydd's constituency and he is a local hero. I first met him on our doorstep when he was canvassing. When I was introduced to him formally I tried to call him "Mr Wigley" and he replied: "Nonsense, nonsense, call me Dafydd." There is a complete absence of pomp and ceremony about him. He is the longest-serving leader of any British political party and he's absolutely thriving at the moment. For the first time there's a real chance of his being the first Prime Minister of Wales.

There's a feeling of optimism in Wales at the moment, both culturally and politically. Wales did well in the Five Nations rugby this year and Welsh bands such as the Manics, Catatonia and Stereophonics have become world famous.

Nonetheless, despite the success stories, GDP in Wales remains less than 75 per cent of the European average per head and unemployment is still a deep-rooted problem.

I've always been very proud that Dafydd and Plaid remain true to the principles of equality and socialism. South Wales and the coalfields are the birthplace of Labour and full of radical people. But whereas new Labour have turned their back on the traditions of social justice by pandering to the values of middle England, Plaid remains committed to public services.

I don't have much respect for Kinnock because he campaigned so hard against a referendum in 1979. But people know that Dafydd has always fought for Wales, and in a recent poll, while 29 per cent of people said they wanted Alun Michael to be the first PM of Wales, 28 per cent chose Dafydd.

Two years ago, having graduated in politics, I volunteered to help Plaid with the referendum campaign. I was desperate to prove myself, which I must have done because I was offered this job in Westminster in December. The night of the referendum was incredible. All night while we were losing I was crying with disappointment and disbelief and threatening to go home. But my husband told me just to wait and see, because the results from Gwynedd and Carmarthen were yet to come in. The next minute, I heard cheering and I realised that both counties had voted "yes". I have never gone from feeling so low to feeling so elated in such a short space of time. Everyone was dancing on tables and waving Welsh flags. Suddenly the whole political landscape changed and Plaid had the chance to have some of its policies implemented.

On arrival at the House of Commons, there were many procedures to learn. If you work for the Tories or Labour there is a whole team of researchers and press officers to show you the ropes, but we were a small team and it took me a long time to understand how everything was done. I couldn't have done it without my colleague Gwenda, who has been working for Dafydd in his constituency office for 25 years.

The Scottish National Party are our sister party and Alec Salmond and Dafydd are good friends, so Alec's private secretary Stephen also helped me a lot in the early stages. But while it's tempting for people to try to wrap Wales and Scotland together, it's important to realise that Plaid and the SNP are in fact politically different.

My job involves a real mixture of everything including researching and writing articles, speeches, press releases and parliamentary motions and questions. I need to be able to know about so many things, including farming, economics, health and foreign affairs; in this short space of time I have learnt far more than I did when at university.

At the moment I travel around the country a fair bit with Dafydd, carrying my laptop and mobile with me, at the ready to knock up a press release in our battle bus, the "Wigley Wagon". Dafydd is very hard-working; he's twice my age but has double my stamina.

When Dafydd resigns his seat, I hope that I can go back to Wales with him; and eventually I would like to be an Assembly member myself because my heart is in Wales. My grandma has just moved into sheltered accommodation, which was opened by Dafydd, and there's a plaque on the wall with his name on it. She's proud to tell everyone that her granddaughter works for Dafydd and I feel very proud to be working for him.

Interview by

Katie Sampson