![BBC | Reuters Rhun ap Iorwerth, Vaughan Gething, Jane Dodds, David TC Davies and Oliver Lewis](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/df5f/live/a65eb660-2e24-11ef-90be-b75b34b0bbb2.png.webp)
Representatives from the 5 most distinguished political events in Wales are set commerce blows in a stay televised debate on Friday night.
Hosted by Bethan Rhys Roberts, the talk might be broadcast stay on BBC One Wales, Radio Wales and on-line, at 19:00 BST.
It would function Welsh Labour chief and first minister Vaughan Gething, Conservative David TC Davies, Plaid Cymru chief Rhun ap Iorwerth, Jane Dodds for the Lib Dems and Oliver Lewis for Reform UK.
So, who’re all of them and what can we count on from them?
Vaughan Gething
![PA Vaughan Gething and Keir Starmer](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/68c6/live/55056080-2e28-11ef-83a5-63f6b38e31f6.jpg.webp)
Vaughan Gething has been first minister, and Welsh Labour chief, since changing Mark Drakeford in March – turning into the primary black man to steer a authorities in Europe.
Born in Zambia to a Welsh father in 1971, Mr Gething moved to the UK when he was two and was raised in Dorset earlier than attending Aberystwyth College.
After coming into politics as a Cardiff councillor in 2004, Mr Gething was elected to the Senedd – then often known as the Nationwide Meeting – because the member for Cardiff South and Penarth in 2011.
He gained nationwide prominence through the Covid pandemic as Wales’ well being minister, and later grew to become its economic system minister.
Since narrowly beating Jeremy Miles to the highest job on 16 March, his management has been mired in controversy after it was revealed his marketing campaign accepted £200,000 from an organization whose boss was twice convicted for environmental offences.
On 5 June, Mr Gething misplaced a no-confidence vote within the Senedd, tabled by the Tories, after two Labour members have been off sick and unable to vote towards it.
He has rejected calls to resign and has been publicly backed by Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer.
David TC Davies
![Reuters David TC Davies with Rishi Sunak, Alan Cairns and Andrew RT Davies](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6021/live/5ab5ac00-2e33-11ef-9a1d-85ccbb7c4a67.jpg.webp)
David TC Davies was appointed Welsh secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s authorities in 2022.
Born in Newport in 1970, Mr Davies labored for British Metal after leaving college earlier than happening to work as a nightclub promoter, tobacco picker and rickshaw driver, all in Australia.
Again within the UK he labored as a continental lorry driver and managed his household haulage enterprise earlier than he was elected to the Senedd, then Meeting, in 1999.
He was elected MP for Monmouth in 2005 and, previous to his cupboard appointment, chaired the Welsh Affairs Choose Committee, was an assistant authorities whip and junior Wales Workplace minister.
He instructed the BBC earlier this month that high-profile errors by prime Conservatives have contributed to a “tough” election marketing campaign for the occasion.
Mr Davies additionally mentioned the 685,000 those who legally migrated to the UK in 2023 12 months was “far too excessive” and that he would personally need this quantity to be at round 100,000 to 150,000.
![Election graphic](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/9dfa/live/fba18820-2ef4-11ef-bdc5-41d7421c2adf.png.webp)
Rhun ap Iorwerth
![PA Rhun at Plaid Cymru event](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/666b/live/ab3d4f70-2e2e-11ef-b074-d5ef6556f63b.jpg.webp)
Rhun ap Iorwerth has been chief of Plaid Cymru since 2023, changing Adam Worth following a scathing report on misogyny, harassment and bullying inside the occasion.
Born in Tonteg, close to Pontypridd, in 1971, he grew up in Meirionnydd earlier than transferring to Anglesey when he was 5.
After graduating from Cardiff College, Mr ap Iorwerth was a political reporter for BBC Wales from 1994 to 2013.
He give up the broadcaster to run for Plaid Cymru in a Senedd by-election for the Ynys Môn seat in 2013, which he has held ever since.
Within the run as much as polling day, Mr ap Iorwerth claimed that that is “not an independence election” and has as an alternative targeted his occasion’s supply on constructing “a stronger, extra affluent economic system for Wales”.
He additionally mentioned some areas in Wales want extra immigration, not much less – blaming strained public providers on lack of UK authorities spending, not migrants.
Jane Dodds
![PA Jane Dodds](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5f7b/live/a64479d0-2e33-11ef-bc4b-955992fd9eb0.jpg.webp)
Jane Dodds was born in Wrexham in 1963, the place she was raised earlier than transferring to Cardiff for college.
After graduating she skilled to turn into a baby safety social employee – which might be her profession for the subsequent 27 years.
Ms Dodds was first elected chief of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in November 2017.
After successful a by-election for the Brecon and Radnorshire Westminster constituency in 2019, she held the seat for simply three months earlier than the Tories wrestled it again off her in that 12 months’s common election.
Ms Dodds was then elected as a regional Senedd member for Mid and West Wales in 2021 and stays her occasion’s solely elected politician in Wales.
She has mentioned an excellent election night time for her occasion on 4 July could be “kicking the Tories out of Wales”.
The occasion has closely campaigned on enhancing social care, pledging to pay carers an additional £2 an hour and calling for them to be “valued larger in society”.
Ms Dodds additionally mentioned she believes the citizens have moved on from the occasion’s tuition charges u-turn when it fashioned a coalition authorities with the Tories in 2010, which preceded the Lib Dems dropping all however eight seats on the following election.
Oliver Lewis
![Oliver Lewis](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/7ed6/live/fd3041b0-2e34-11ef-bc4b-955992fd9eb0.jpg.webp)
Standing as a Reform UK candidate within the Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr constituency, Oliver Lewis has mentioned he politically identifies as “a radical” who desires a “wholesale re-set of Britain’s establishments”.
Born and raised in Oxford, with a Welsh grandfather, Mr Lewis labored in monetary providers for 5 years after graduating college in 2009.
He’s at present researching “British state failure” as a PhD scholar at Oxford College, the place he additionally teaches British politics.
Mr Lewis has refuted recommendations that his occasion’s purpose for web zero immigration might trigger gaps within the workforce, together with in social and well being care.
He mentioned it was “morally reprehensible” to drag overseas labour into the well being service – saying it’s “not a long-term answer to our points”.
He additionally shot down a possible collaboration with the Tories in future, branding the occasion a “failing establishment” which “frankly… must die”.