Ben Lake.

Plaid Cymru's most consistent rebel on WASPI pensions, Ben Lake voted against his own party in January 2025 on a motion that would have required the government to act on the Ombudsman's findings about women born in the 1950s who lost out due to state pension age changes — a direct contradiction of Plaid Cymru's majority position. He has backed that stance publicly, welcoming a subsequent government U-turn in December 2025 and attending constituent events on the issue. On assisted dying, he sits noticeably to the left of his party: he is 25 percentage points less likely than the average Plaid MP to vote against the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, and voted aye in June 2025 on a procedural question that his party rejected.

At 59% voting participation, Lake falls below the Commons average. Within that record, he votes with Plaid Cymru 99.4% of the time — making his WASPI and assisted dying positions the genuine exceptions. His stance profile shows strong alignment on workers' rights (89%) and consistent opposition to employer National Insurance increases (100%), but low alignment on fiscal responsibility (19%) and business-friendly measures (30%). His speeches cluster around economy and jobs, defence, fiscal policy, and social care — a range that reflects both Welsh Affairs Committee work and constituency pressures in a rural, coastal seat.

Lake is a member of the Welsh Affairs Committee and has publicly pushed for greater rail investment in Wales and lobbied ministers directly on rural fuel costs. Local news coverage — 77 articles in the past 90 days — is broadly neutral in tone, spanning community, transport, and crime issues, suggesting steady constituency engagement rather than any single controversy. No significant negative coverage is recorded.