Ann Clwyd

The Rt. Hon. Ann Clwyd, fully Ann Clwyd Roberts (born 21 March 1937, Denbigh) is the current Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party representing backbench British Labour Members of Parliament. She has represented Cynon Valley in Wales since 1984 and is on the left wing of the party. She was formerly a teacher.

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She worked as a journalist, working for the BBC and then for newspapers. She was persuaded to stand for Parliament by Huw T Edwards, who felt that there should be more women in parliament. She was the unsuccessful Labour candidate in Denbigh in 1970.

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From 1979 to 1984, Ann Clwyd was MEP for Mid and West Wales. She was elected to Parliament in a byelection following the death of Ioan Evans and became the first woman to sit for a Welsh valleys constituency. She served as Shadow Minister of Education and Women's Rights from 1987 but was sacked in 1988 for rebelling against the party whip on a defence matter. She returned as Shadow Minister for Overseas Development from 1989 to 1992 and then served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in 1992 and for National Heritage from 1992 to 1993.

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She was the Opposition Spokesperson for Employment from 1993 to 1994 and for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1995 when she was again sacked, along with Jim Cousins, for taking a foreign trip without permission (in this case, visiting Kurdish sites in nothern Iraq). In 1994 she also staged a sit-in down Tower Colliery mine in her constituency to protest at its closure. She was a member of the International Development Select Committee from 1997 to 2005. Having been prominent in her concern for the situation in Iraq before the war there in 2003, Tony Blair made her a Special Envoy on Human Rights in Iraq in the run-up to the War. On August 9, 2004, she became a member of the Privy Council.

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Clwyd was a Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2001 until 2005, and was elected as Chair by 167 to 156 for Tony Lloyd on May 24, 2005.

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Although a Labour party member as an adult, Clwyd once stood (successfully) on behalf of Plaid Cymru in an election in her school.

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21 March: REDIRECT March 21...

1937: 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar)....

Denbigh: This article is about a town in Wales. For the former town of the same name in Virginia, see Denbigh, Virginia....

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