A scramble of nominations for a chance at winning a Senedd seat in the expanded 96 member government includes some sitting county councillors at MCC.

Seven Labour councillors are vying for the coveted second place spot on the list of candidates Labour will put forward for the combined Monmouthshire and Torfaen constituency.

New seats in the Senedd will be allocated based on a party’s percentage of the vote, with the greater the share of their vote in each constituency the more of their candidates will be elected.

Welsh Labour has agreed sitting Members of Senedd are guaranteed the top spot on its list of candidates and as Monmouthshire is a Conservative held seat the second spot on Labour’s list is free and will be determined by party members who will be asked to rank the seven candidates in preference order.

Anthony Hunt, who has led Torfaen council since 2016, is considered by many as the favourite for the position and considered the only other placing on Labour’s list with a realistic prospect of securing a seat in the Senedd.

Cllr Hunt, who earns £63,020 a year as council leader which also includes the £19,771 paid to all councillors, also works part time for current Torfaen MP, and UK Government minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds. He will be aiming to earn a place in the Senedd which has an annual salary of £76,380 for all members.

The other candidates battling with Cllr Hunt for ranking priority are Monmouthshire cabinet members Laura Wright, Ben Callard and Catrin Maby as well as Cllr Su McConnel and Torfaen councillors Peter Jones and Nick Byrne.

Monmouthshire cabinet member Catrin Maby, who represents Drybridge, Monmouth, was Labour’s Monmouthshire candidate at the 2021 Senedd election where she won 11,487 votes, or 32 per cent, but finished second to Conservative Peter Fox who polled 15,332, a 42.7 per cent share.

She has had responsibility for climate change and the environment on the cabinet since Labour came to power at County Hall at the 2022 local government elections and has been a self-employed consultant on building energy efficiency.

Cllr Laura Wright was appointed as Monmouthshire council’s cabinet member for education in May, and represents Abergavenny’s Grofield ward and is also a member of the GMB union.

Cllr Ben Callard, is responsible for finance on Monmouthshire council, represents Llanfoist and Govilon and has worked for a plastics firm and is also a member of the GMB and Abergavenny Tennis Club.

Cllr Su McConnell, who represents Croesonnen near Abergavenny, was chairman of Monmouthshire County Council during 2024/25 and has worked as a probation officer serving as vice chair of NAPO, the union for probation officers.

The Green Party has selected Ian Chandler, who sits in a coalition with Labour to run Monmouthshire council, as its Sir Fynwy Torfaen candidate. Cllr Chandler is the council’s cabinet member for social care and stood in the Monmouthshire seat at last year’s UK general election gaining 2,357 votes, a 4.6 per cent share.