MEBYON KERNOW (MK) members have selected Colin Lawry to be the Party’s new Honorary President at their 2024 National Conference.

Colin has been a member of the Party for Cornwall for over 45 years. He also holds the record of being MK’s most successful election candidate. He has contested the most elections to principal authorities as an MK candidate. He won 75 per cent of his twelve contests, representing MK on Penwith District Council between 1982 and 2002 and on Cornwall County Council between 1985 and 2001.

He has also held numerous roles within MK, ranging from assistant treasurer in the early 1980s through to Vice-Chairman (West), Deputy Leader and Nominating Officer. Colin is MK’s fifth Honorary President and succeeds MK founder-member Ann Trevenen Jenkin, who served in the role between 2011 and 2024.

Colin thanked all present for his appointment and his comments included the following:

“It is sobering to reflect that with Ann Trevenen Jenkin’s passing, Mebyon Kernow has lost that remaining link to the meeting at the Oates Temperance Hotel in 1951, when MK was founded, but it is also encouraging to think that whole new generations of supporters and activists have carried on the work that was started at that time.”

“I am greatly impressed by the progress that is being made in making the case for Cornwall’s difference, its sense of place and the continuing campaign for the governance of Cornwall to be seen in a Cornish context – I’ve often said that we’re no better, we’re certainly no worse, but we are different.

“The work that we are doing is now mainstream, whereas for many years that certainly wasn’t the case. It’s great to read of the joint letter by all of Cornwall’s MPs and the leaders of the groups on Cornwall Council making the case for Cornish devolution to the Deputy Prime Minister.”

“Thank you for the great honour you do me. I am conscious that I’ve got very big shoes to fill, but all I can do is to be the best version of myself that I can be. I shall do my best to be a supportive and encouraging presence, a voice of calm experience if that is needed and I will be making myself available to deliver election literature for the Cornwall Council elections, so that we can try to secure an even stronger presence on the next Cornwall Council.

“That MK presence is so important – I firmly believe that it is only thanks to the well-reasoned and consistent campaigning that MK has maintained over the course of many decades that Cornwall today is so confidently coming together politically to remind Westminster that we are still here, we still matter, and we are still Cornish.”