Plaid leadership vote is settled

Outsider Leanne Wood has been elected as leader of Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru.

Following the elimination of Lord Elis-Thomas in the first round of voting, the contest became an all-female affair – with the peer’s second and third preference votes being split between the two remaining candidates.

Mother-of-one Miss Wood triumphed after polling 3,326, compared to Elin Jones’s 2,494.

She said: “Our task now is to build on the work of all of those who have gone before us.

“We may be small, as a party and as a country, but we can stand tall if we stand together and we stand up for our principles.

“I may not be the leader of the official opposition, but I intend to lead the official proposition, the proposition that another Wales is possible. So here’s my message today to the people of Wales: we are your party, the people’s party.”