Roderick Richards (12 March 1947 – 13 July 2019) was a British politician. He was a Conservative before joining UKIP in 2013. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Clwyd North West, in Wales, from 1992 to 1997, when he lost his seat in the Labour Party landslide. He was also the first Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in 1999, after being elected as an Assembly Member for North Wales. Early life Richards was born in Llanelli to Ivor George Richards and Lizzie Jane Richards (née Evans). Welsh-speaking Richards was educated at Llandovery College and at Swansea University where he gained a first class honours degree in economics and statistics. On 22 September 1969 he began training as a Royal Marines Officer. He failed to complete training and therefore was never commissioned in to the Corps. Contrary to various published CVs he never served in Northern Ireland as a Royal Marines officer. He served on the intelligence staff of the Ministry of Defence, and worked as an economic forecaster. Richards, at one point, worked for MI-6 Richards first rose to public prominence in the 1980s as a Welsh-language newsreader for BBC Wales. Political career UK Parliament He first tried to enter parliament at the 1987 general election, when he stood unsuccessfully for the Carmarthen seat, giving up his job with the BBC to do so. He was unsuccessful again two years later at a by-election for the Vale of Glamorgan, again giving up his work as a broadcaster, but at the 1992 general election he was elected as MP for the former parliamentary seat of Clwyd North West. During John Major's government he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 and Welsh Office junior minister in 1994, but was forced to resign in 1996 when news of an extra-marital affair surfaced. He made several attempted Parliamentary comebacks, but failed to secure the nomination for Clwyd West ahead of the May 2001 general election, and was reported to be looking at several 'safe' conservative seats in England. National Assembly for Wales Although defeated in his constituency seat during the first Welsh Assembly elections in 1999, he was elected to the new body as lead candidate on the Conservatives' regional top-up list. He was elected the Welsh Conservative Party Leader in a ballot of Welsh party members defeating Nick Bourne, who was then widely known