Ben Lake


Ben Morgan Lake is a Plaid Cymru politician and a member of the UK Parliament for the Ceredigion constituency.

Background

Lake was born and brought up in Lampeter, the son of a policeman and a council worker. He attended Ffynnonbedr Primary School and Ysgol Bro Pedr. After graduating from Trinity College, Oxford with an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and a master's degree in Modern British and European History, he became a Research Officer in the National Assembly for Wales. He is a fluent Welsh speaker.

Political career

In the 2017 general election, Lake won the Ceredigion constituency, gaining the seat from Liberal Democrat Mark Williams with 11,623 votes. In the 2019 general election, Lake retained his seat with 15,208 votes. He is currently the youngest MP in Wales.
Lake is currently the Plaid Cymru spokesperson at Westminster for the Environment, Food, Rural Affairs, Education, Skills, Health, Communities, Local Government, Culture, Media, Sport and Constitutional Affairs. Lake was appointed a member of the Welsh Affairs Committee in September 2017. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality for Women. He supported Rhun ap Iorwerth in the 2018 Plaid Cymru leadership election.
In December 2017, Lake was awarded the ‘Politician to Watch’ prize as part of the ITV Welsh Politician of the Year Awards 2017. In August 2019, Lake was nominated for the MP of the Year Award, acknowledging MPs who actively work with under-represented and disadvantaged communities across the UK.

Political views

Lake gave his support to a second referendum on the terms of Brexit. In March 2019, he voted for an amendment tabled by members of The Independent Group for a second public vote on EU membership.