Women in Westminster: In Conversation with Baroness Smith of Llanfaes
As the youngest ever life peer, Carmen, The Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, brings a different eye to legislation that passes through Parliament’s upper chamber. As part of our Women in Westminster series, we sat down with the Plaid Cymru peer to learn about her journey from a north Wales council estate to the red benches
At 28, Baroness Smith became the youngest life peer to take a seat in the House of Lords. During her sit down conversation with Women in Westminster, it is apparent that historical achievement still feels somewhat surreal.
“The whole introduction was very strange,” she says. “It’s such a formal ceremony. The whole building is very intimidating. You’re surrounded by old paintings and statues. There’s literally a throne in your workplace. I mean, that’s not normal.”
The grandeur and tradition of the upper house must feel a world away from the North Wales council estate where Smith grew up. It was, she remembers, a community where most people felt entirely disconnected from political decision makers.
“Politics just wasn't part of day-to-day life,” Smith tells us. “There was a sense of ‘them and us’ – a belief that politicians didn’t actually understand what it's like to live with the daily struggles that many people have.”
It was not an environment where young people routinely aspired to becoming part of the legislature. And Smith too did not see that as her path when she was younger.
“Up until I was 15 or 16, I didn’t think politics was something for me, or for people from my background,” she explains. “When you grow up being told you can only be a certain number of things, your horizon feels limited.”
That sense of limited aspirations and the wider disengagement from politics is something that Smith is determined to change for others. One of the parts of her role she enjoys the most is visiting schools and colleges to speak about how the House of Lords operates.
“When young people say politics isn’t for them, it’s often because they don’t feel they understand it,” she says. “Give them the right information and they think, ‘actually, I do care about this.’”
For Smith herself, the lightbulb moment that triggered her political awakening came courtesy of a chance encounter with then Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood.
“I honestly didn’t know who she was,” Smith recalls with a laugh. “I just thought she seemed like a nice, ordinary woman. Then I found out she was the leader of a political party. After that, I followed her on social media and realised I agreed with what she was saying. That’s how it all started.”
That chance meeting led to Smith embarking on a political journey that included standing as a candidate for the European Parliament and later becoming Chief of Staff for Plaid Cymru in the Senedd. In 2024 she speculatively put her name forward for Plaid’s internal process to select potential nominees to the House of Lords.
“When I put my name forward, it was like, well, this might happen in five years, or it might not happen at all,” Smith tells us. “After I received an email from No 10 confirming it was actually happening, I was in a state of disbelief.”
The selection of Smith generated national headlines, both positive and negative. She is strikingly honest about the challenges that level of scrutiny brought, feeling that she was singled out for her age and for being a young working-class woman.
“It was 100 per cent difficult and there's no shying away from that,” she remembers. “But then I thought, I'm going into a place where the average age is 71 and it is 70 per cent men. Actually, if you turn it on its head, I realised I have quite a unique voice to offer.”
A year and a half on, Smith is proud of how she has adjusted and managed to navigate an institution which some assumed would overwhelm her. “I think people probably didn’t think I’d hit the ground running,” she says. “I think I have done a pretty good job.”
Although Smith is clear that her primary function is to act as a Plaid Cymru representative and consider legislation “through the lens of Wales” she is also driven by a personal set of values and an outlook that was shaped by her background. This is particularly the case when it comes to addressing issues that women of her generation increasingly contend with, such as rising levels of harassment and violence.
Smith knows, that to achieve the changes she wants to see, building strong alliances across both Houses is essential. For instance, she has worked closely with her party colleagues in the Commons to push for the stronger implementation of laws on workplace harassment.
“There is simply no point being one voice,” she says. “I work with people across parties who are pro-devolution, and with those who’ve campaigned on violence against women and girls.”
Smith’s background as a young carer has also profoundly shaped her politics, providing her with a deeply personal insight into the way that sometimes abstract policy discussions impact on people and places. Those voices, she argues, must be much more central to the policymaking process.
“Navigating the welfare system and NHS Wales was difficult,” she tells us. “It means that when people today share their experiences, I can identify with that – and hopefully use my platform to share their stories.”
Smith clearly sees her role on the red benches as being to provide a voice for others who are not always heard at the centre of power.
“There’s still a lack of understanding of what it’s like to not have a penny in your bank account because of an administrative error,” she says. “If there was more understanding of lived experience, we’d have much less of that.”
