WELSH language and lifelong learning minister Eluned Morgan has become the third AM to officially announce they will stand to replace Carwyn Jones as leader of Welsh Labour and first minister.

The Mid and West Wales AM, who served as an MEP for 15 years from 1994 until 2009 and was granted the title of Baroness Morgan of Ely in 2011, will stand against Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething when Mr Jones stands down later this year.

She has served in the Assembly for just two years, having first been elected in 2016. Mr Drakeford and Mr Gething have both served in the Assembly since 2011.

Saying the party "needs to focus unrelentingly on tackling poverty in Wales", Ms Morgan said she believed her experience in Brussels would serve her well as the UK leaves the European Union.

“Labour has been in power in Wales since the Assembly was established back in 1999," she said. "I believe that I would be the candidate to represent change in this election.

"I am a relatively new member of the National Assembly, but I have decades of broader political experience having represented Wales in the European Parliament for 15 years and served on the front benches in the House of Lords."

As the only woman to so far announce they will stand for the role, Ms Morgan said she had been inspired by the thousands of women who took part in a march celebrating 100 years of women's suffrage in Cardiff on Monday.

“I have been encouraged to stand as leader by many who have said that they would like to see a new, fresh and energised leadership in Wales heading into the next Assembly election," she said.

"I was extremely moved that many inspirational women who took part in the procession through the Cardiff streets yesterday expressed hope that I would stand.

"As this year marks a century since women won the right to vote, I feel that would be letting these women down if I did not put my name forward.”

She also backed calls for the leadership election to be held under a one-member-one-vote system. Although the party has previously used an electoral college system, pressure has mounted for this to be replaced with a system through which every vote is counted equally, and last week it was announced former Torfaen MP Lord Murphy will lead a review into the arrangements, with a special conference where any proposed change will be decided to be held in September.

“Whilst the form of the voting system must be a decision for the Labour Party in Wales, I feel that we need to move to a one member one vote system - although we must find a way of ensuring that the politically affiliated union voice is heard within that system,” she said.

“It would be a tragedy if the leadership election did not move beyond a debate of the mechanics of an internal voting system - Wales is confronting serious future challenges and we need to position ourselves to be a highly skilled and responsive economy with strong public services which takes account of the needs of the environment and future generations.”

Ms Morgan is one of only two AMs to also sit in the House of Lords - the other being ex-Plaid Cymru leader Dafydd Elis-Thomas, who now sits as an Independent and is also the Welsh Government's minister for culture, tourism and sport.