Love-struck politicians sitting on different sides say they have reached 'respectful truce'

Aaron Wynne, Plaid Cymru’s Senedd candidate in Aberconwy, and Leena Farhat, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Clwyd South, have been dating for around 18 months.

Despite sitting on different sides of the political divide the couple have managed to reach a respectful truce on their political differences.

Aaron, 24, said he knew he wanted to be with Leena, 23, from the moment they visited the Lloyd George museum together in Criccieth, although it was she who asked him out first.

However she initially thought he was just another “typical, obnoxious, wannabe politician” when she first met him.

She said: “That was how I saw him. That was in December or January, then over the summer I really wanted to go to the Lloyd George museum and I didn’t want to go alone.

“Aaron was the only young person who was interested in politics I knew at the time, so I was like ‘hey I’m going to this museum, do you want to come?’ He said ‘Yeah sure why not?'”

Despite her friends’ worries she didn’t know him well enough, she backed her instinct and they had “a great time”.

After a couple more dinner dates she asked him out and 18 months on they’ve formed the most unlikely of coalitions.

Now they’re fighting for different seats and vying to be the Senedd’s youngest member or “Baby of the House”.

If Aaron gets there he won’t be the youngest ever, that honour goes to Jack Sargeant who was 23 when he won his late father’s Alyn and Deeside constituency seat in a by-election more than three years ago, although Leena might.

“As I’m a councillor she does like to take the mickey that I’m going into a room full of older people and I look like the child of the chamber,” said Aaron.

“If she did well and was elected she would obviously be the youngest in the Senedd, so she realises she’s in a similar situation.”

It’s something which amuses Leena. She said: “I always make fun of him because he’s a year and a bit older than me and he really takes it to heart.

“If only he got in he would be the ‘Baby of the House’ depending on who else is standing in Wales.

“If we both got in then unfortunately I’d be the ‘Baby of the House’. That would be our main conflict I think, with me saying ‘I’m younger than you’.

“I like to remind him there was a whole year of his life I didn’t exist.”

Aaron says people tend to “just write me off straight away” because of his age but with 16 and 17 year-olds voting for the first time in these Senedd elections he sees his and Leena’s insight as opportunities.

He said: “I’m a young person who’s struggled to find work, who can’t afford to buy a house and these sorts of issues need to be fixed.

“It’s us young people who can fix them because we’re the ones having to deal with those issues.

“I don’t think age correlates with political maturity. I don’t think that’s true at all.”

They both knew they were politically active for their respective parties when they met but the couple maintain they manage to “respectfully” differ on the big flash points, such as independence.

When Aaron met Leena she was studying computer science at Aberystwyth University, the British-born daughter of a Lebanese dad and Mauritian mum (both scientists) who involved her and her brother in politics around the dinner table.

It got her thinking about world events and society from an early age and set her on a course for political activism.

Speaking both Arabic and French at home, and English at school, also turned her into a polyglot, which has helped her on the campaign trail.

Leena can also speak German and Mandarin Chinese, so it seemed natural to learn Welsh when she came to Aberystwyth.

It helps when chatting to her Welsh speaking boyfriend and also when out meeting electors.

She joked: “People find it really cool (that I speak so many languages) but otherwise I wouldn’t be able to speak to half of my family.

“I try and use Welsh as much as I can when campaigning – it takes people by surprise quite a bit.”

As well as a mutual love of politics and history, the pair both like the outdoors and like nothing better than walking up a mountain and exploring what Wales has to offer.

However it hasn’t all been plain sailing, as Leena’s family now lives in Geneva because of her father’s work.

When lockdown was on the horizon, she decided to go and see them. She said: “I went to Switzerland and said ‘see you in two weeks’ and I didn’t come back for five months.

“I think that was quite hard on both of us but more so him. Whereas I have always been used to travelling and having that distance, everyone he’s cared about has always been in his immediate area.”

He said: “Obviously that was difficult. She came back at the end of August time when restrictions were eased and we were able to ‘bubble’ because she lives on her own.

“That made things easier but of course we’ve not been able to do the things we wanted to do over the last year.

“Leena came to Llanrwst in the beginning of December and I think she was hoping to stay until the weekend before Christmas.

“She was going to fly back to Switzerland but Welsh Government made a snap decision to lock us down and she was stuck in Wales.”

That was made harder as Aaron still lives at home with his parents, like many of his contemporaries who struggle to find affordable housing within the communities they live.

However, despite the challenges, they are still managing to enjoy each other’s company whenever they get the chance.

It’s something Leena appreciates after previous boyfriends couldn’t understand the demands of political life.

She said: “I think it’s kind of nice we are both campaigning. I’ve said before if you are going to date it’s hard as a political candidate.

“We have schedules where you have to be somewhere at the drop of a hat. The nice thing is we both understand each other on that.”

Leena accepts she has a “hard job on her hands” winning her seat against political heavyweights Ken Skates (Labour) and Llyr Gruffydd (Plaid Cymru).

However she is enjoying her first foray into politics as a candidate in a major election, although she says when they were both campaigning during the 2019 General Election, she couldn’t stop laughing.

She said: “We also had a general election in between (meeting and the start of the pandemic) which was hilarious.

“I think it’s a lot more fun when you’re on two different sides. I know his family found it quite funny.

“I’d come up and see him and we would go out leafleting. On one day we were out leafleting two different parts of Conwy for two different parties.”

Aaron, who is fighting a key three-way marginal in Aberconwy against Conservative Janet Finch-Saunders and Labour’s Dawn McGuinness, says the differences will come out during the campaign but all’s well that ends well if the respect is there.

He said: “We are able to disagree with each other in a respectful way and if we were both lucky enough to be elected to the Senedd we would continue to do that.

“Plaid Cymru has a lot of great ideas but other parties have good ideas too, so there’s no reason why we can’t share ideas and good practices.

“We’re all there to work for the people of Wales. It doesn’t matter which party we are.

“I think Leena and I would be able to make it work, both personally and professionally.”