John Paul Jenkins

Political career

Jenkins was elected at the local elections on 10 June 2004. As of 2006, he is the youngest elected representative in Carmarthenshire.

Before becoming a councillor, Jenkins was chosen by the Conservative Party in 2002 to be its candidate for the Llanelli constituency at the 2003 election to the National Assembly for Wales. However, in March 2003, just two months before polling day, Jenkins was reported to have made homophobic remarks on an internet forum. The story was first reported in the Western Mail and subsequently on the BBC Wales news.

Jenkins withdrew his candidacy although he claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context and that, "a lot of selective editing was carried out somewhere between my actual comments being made and the reporting of my remarks in the Western Mail and subsequently the BBC."

Later in 2003, Jenkins started his campaign for election to Carmarthenshire County Council. Running with the slogan "Standing up for Llanelli" Jenkins won election to Carmarthenshire County Council and Llanelli Town Council in 2004.

As of 2006, he serves on Carmarthenshire County Council's Planning Committee and Social Justice Scrutiny Committee, ironically the latter being the committee that scrutinises the Council’s equal opportunity policies. He is also a Carmarthenshire Local Education Authority appointed governor of Bryngwyn Comprehensive School in Dafen, Llanelli. He also serves on Llanelli Town Council's Selwyn Samuel Management Committee and is a Minor Authority appointed governor of Old Road County Primary School in Llanelli.

Second resignation

On 15 February 2006, Jenkins was selected by the Conservative Party to contest the Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South constituency, to take place in 2007. The seat is seen as a winnable seat for the Conservatives, as opposed to the Llanelli constituency where Jenkins was intending to stand for in 2003.

However, the following day, Jenkins resigned as a Conservative candidate for the second time. While attacks from opposition parties to Jenkins' selection were inevitable they were less than ferocious. Jenkins later commented that he was forced to resign by David Cameron who feared Jenkins' selection would undermine Cameron's attempt to re-brand the Conservative Party as inclusive to homosexuals.

Jenkins subsequently announced that following his resignation as a candidate he was also quitting the Conservative Party because of what he saw as the Conservative Party's unfair treatment towards him. Jenkins claimed that he had been encouraged to apply to become a pre-approved Conservative candidate by the Party's group leader in the Welsh Assembly, Nicholas Bourne, had been subsequently pre-approved by the Conservative Party as a candidate and then selected to fight the Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South constituency by the local party in that seat but that the potential controversy that his selection could have caused and the effect on David Cameron's image led David Cameron to demand his resignation as a candidate despite the Conservative Party in Wales giving Jenkins its full backing.

Current situation

Jenkins has hinted that he will contest the Llanelli constituency for the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections as an "independent". At present, the Carmarthenshire County Council website lists Jenkins as "unaffiliated" (to any political group) on the County Council, which as the sole Conservative he technically was before his resignation as two councillors are needed to form a political group on a council but the change of designation indicates Jenkins' resignation from the Conservative Party has been carried out. Jenkins currently has his own column in the online community news website Your Llanelli called "Standing up for Llanelli".