Key interests and
achievements
Mick Antoniw is a founder member of the Bevan Foundation and
a former trustee of the Welsh Refugee Council. He is Vice President of the
Brynsadler Community Trust in Pontyclun and a Trustee of Beddau-based youth
counselling charity Eye-to-eye. He is also a member of Welsh Labour Grassroots,
the Co-operative Party, GMB and the Musicians Union.
In his constituency, Mick’s focus is on ensuring fairness
and social justice for working people and improving infrastructure,
particularly in respect of transport. He engages widely across his constituency
and has been pleased to help many individuals and groups make improvements in
their local area.
Personal history
Mick was brought up in Reading and moved to Wales to study
law at Cardiff University in 1973. He loves Wales and it’s where he met his
wife Elaine, so he’s lived here ever since. Mick’s father was a refugee from
Ukraine after the war and he taught Mick Ukrainian, which he speaks fluently.
Mick takes Welsh lessons whenever he can, but is still some way from being
fluent in three languages!
Professional
background
Before being elected as an Assembly Member in 201I, Mick was
a partner at Trade Union solicitors Thompsons, where he regularly represented
people in Pontypridd and across Rhondda Cynon Taf. His casework took him to the
collieries at Nantgarw and Cwm, South Wales Forgemasters and Brown Lenox among
others and, as a result, he has lived through the many changes in the
constituency over the years.
After qualifying as a solicitor in 1980, Mick specialised in
spinal and head injuries and corporate manslaughter. He is a visiting fellow of
the University of South Wales in Treforest and has lectured widely across
Wales, the UK and internationally in the field of health and safety and law
reform.
Political history
Mick has served the people of Pontypridd and Taff Ely as
their Assembly Member since 2011, being re-elected in 2016.
Mick served as Counsel General for Wales from June 2016 to
November 2017.
During the Fourth Assembly (2011 – 2016), Mick sat on the Assembly’s
Enterprise and Business Committee and the Environment and Sustainability
Committee; and was Chair of the Standards of Conduct Committee. Mick continues
to participate in a number of Cross-Party groups.
From 2012 to 2015, Mick represented the Welsh Government on
the European Union Committee of the Regions and was re-appointed to the role in
2017.
From 1977 to 1979, Mick was President of the National Union
of Students (Wales) and shortly after, from 1981 to 1989, he was a member of South
Glamorgan County Council.
