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> United Kingdom > Wales > Wales
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| Established | June 09, 1983 |
| Disbanded | Still Active |
| Contributor | RP |
| Last Modified | RBH December 09, 2019 02:00am |
| Description |
Merthyr Tydfil is seen by many as the birthplace of the Labour movement in Britain electing the first Labour MP, Keir Hardie, to Parliament in 1900. This was a heavily industrial area and the iron works at Cyfartha were at one time the largest in the world. A string of mining villages along the Taff Valley, to the south of Merthyr, remained relatively prosperous until the final closure of the four remaining mines in the 1980s. Subsequently high levels of unemployment and poverty persist, and census returns in 2001 show 46% of the people have a limiting long term illness. To the south of Merthyr the constituency extends for ten miles along the floor of the Taff Valley, to the site of the 1966 Aberfan disaster, when colliery waste engulfed the local junior school. It remains a Labour stronghold, and the party holds both the assembly and Westminster seats. Though in 1970 the electorate showed a firm streak of personal loyalty backing octogenarian MP, S O Davies, who on not being reselected by the Labour Party because of his age stood as an Independent and won easily. Today, the local council is divided between Labour and Independents. No other party won a seat at the 2003 local elections and Plaid lost their only three councillors. Labour's Ted Rowlands held this seat between 1972 and 2001 - at his peak he recorded a majority of 27,086 over the Liberal Democrats in 1997. Huw Lewis, the Deputy Communities Minister, currently sits in the Assembly for Labour.
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