Margaret Delyth Evans (born 17 March 1958) is a Welsh executive and former politician who served as Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment in the National Assembly for Wales from 2000 to 2003.

She was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen near Pontypridd and at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she achieved BA Hons in French.

[4][5] She also has a sister, Carys Evans, who worked in the policy unit of the National Assembly for Wales during the premiership of Alun Michael and has a background in HM Treasury.

In the same year, she became an assistant to the shadow chancellor Gordon Brown and a policy adviser, researcher and speechwriter for the UK Labour leader John Smith.

[16][17][18] At the assembly election in May 1999, Labour won enough votes in Mid and West Wales to secure a single top-up seat, which was granted to Michael because of his place on top the party list.

[19][20][21] Evans and the two other, lower ranked candidates on the party list, including the future first minister Vaughan Gething, were not elected to the assembly.

[24][8] Assembly rules meant that Evans automatically succeeded Michael as AM for Mid and West Wales on the same day because she was Labour's next candidate on the party list for that region.

[29] On 24 July 2000, Evans was appointed to the interim administration of Rhodri Morgan as Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Local Government and Environment, succeeding Carwyn Jones.

With the formation of the coalition partnership later that year, her post was reorganised and on 17 October she became Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment, remaining in this role until the 2003 assembly election in May 2003.

[35][36] It also introduced new financial schemes to enable the Books Council of Wales to support publishers in commissioning well-known authors, appointing creative editors and setting up marketable revenue initiatives.

[40] As planned, Evans did not contest the 2003 election, and her seat in Mid and West Wales was taken by Conservative politician Lisa Francis.

[45][4] In 2010, Evans left politics to become the chief executive of Dress For Success London,[46][47] a charity which aimed to support women who were on a low-income or unemployed by training them for job interviews and donating them the formal wear needed to attend them.

[52][53] The group finished its review in July 2017 and made a number of recommendations, including the continuation of funding of the coleg from the Welsh Government and the expansion of its duties to work-based learning and further education, among others.

[63] In September 2013, Evans was selected as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for the House of Commons constituency of Camarthen West and South Pembrokeshire at the 2015 general election.

Her campaign launch focussed on Labour's national policies such as the abolition of the bedroom tax and the creation of new apprenticeships for the youth.

[66] In an interview with The Pembrokeshire Herald in February 2015, Evans said she would prioritise supporting young people and businesses and tackling voter apathy if she was elected MP.

[29] Evans expressed her opposition to Welsh independence in a speech from 2017, stating that while she did not personally identify as being British, she had "always believed that Wales is better off being part of the UK.

I am very firmly of the view that arguments about independence and talk of setting up new borders, and appeals to nationalism, are completely irrelevant to the economic and social challenges we face in Britain today".