Carl Sargeant

Sargeant's death triggered a by-election for his seat which was held on 6 February 2018. Sargeant's son Jack was selected as the Labour candidate, and was elected to the seat.

On 21 April 2018, Carwyn Jones said at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno that he would stand down as First Minister by the end of the year, saying that he had been through the "darkest of times" since Sargeant's death.

Carl Sargeant (1968 – 7 November 2017) was a Welsh politician who was the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children in the Welsh Government. He represented the constituency of Alyn and Deeside in the National Assembly for Wales from 2003.

Sargeant was removed from his Cabinet position and suspended from Welsh Labour on 3 November 2017 following allegations about his behaviour. He died four days later, reportedly taking his own life. On 11 July 2019, an inquest ruled his death a suicide.

Amidst the 2017 Westminster sexual scandals he was suspended from the Labour Party and removed from his position on 3 November 2017, following unspecified allegations about his personal conduct.

Sargeant was found dead at his home in Connah's Quay on 7 November 2017. North Wales Police said that they were not treating his death as suspicious. It was reported that Sargeant had taken his own life. At the opening of the inquest on 13 November, the coroner was told that his death was likely to have been due to hanging. The coroner also commented that the death was "an apparent act of self harm". The coroner recorded a conclusion of suicide on 11 July 2019.

On 9 November 2017 Alun Michael, Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales and former First Secretary, asked Carwyn Jones, then First Minister of Wales, to set out the allegations made against Carl Sargeant. Former minister Leighton Andrews said that in earlier years Sargeant had been the target of bullying and disinformation in the Assembly which had placed "a strain on his and others' mental health," and that this was known to Jones. UK Independence Party Welsh Assembly member Neil Hamilton called for Jones to resign over the matter, saying that the suspension of Sargeant was both "heartless and in breach of the most fundamental principle of natural justice – giving the accused the right to defend himself."

Following the 2016 National Assembly election, he was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children. He led the Welsh Government's response to the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017.

In June 2011, he dismissed the three commissioners of the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales, stating that the body "has lost the confidence of its stakeholders". The two others, also members of the Boundary Commission for Wales, resigned their posts there, leading to the start of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies being delayed in Wales.

In December 2009, he was made Minister for Social Justice and Local Government in the cabinet of the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones. Speaking to the Flintshire Chronicle, Sargeant spoke of his pride in being the first person from North Wales to hold the post.

He was appointed Chief Whip of the Labour Group and a Deputy Welsh Minister for Assembly Business in the Third Assembly of the Welsh Assembly Government (31 May 2007). He remained Labour Chief Whip when the One Wales coalition government of Labour and Plaid Cymru was announced on 19 July.

Sargeant was first elected as the AM for Alyn and Deeside in the National Assembly for Wales election of 2003, after Tom Middlehurst stood down.

His political career began as an elected member of Connah's Quay town council. His political views developed following the ending of steel production at Shotton in 1980, which contributed to the area's high local unemployment rates. He became an active campaigner for social justice and against domestic violence, identifying as a feminist.