Blaenau Gwent

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**Blaenau Gwent county borough**

Geography
Area - Total - % Water	Ranked 22nd 109 km² ? %
Admin HQ	Ebbw Vale
ISO 3166-2	GB-BGW
ONS code	00PL
Demographics
Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density	Ranked 20th 68,400 Ranked 4th 631 / km²
Ethnicity	99.1% White.
Welsh language - Any skills	Ranked 21st 13.3%
Politics
Blaenau Gwent Council http://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/
Control	Labour
MP	Dai Davies, Peoples Voice

Blaenau Gwent is a county borough and parliamentary constituency in South Wales. It borders the principal areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar.

[edit] Government

The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government district, in the new county of Gwent. It was a merger of the Monmouthshire urban districts of Abertillery, Ebbw Vale, Nantyglo and Blaina and Tredegar, along with Brynmawr urban district and the parish of Llanelly in Brecknockshire.

It was reconstituted in 1996 as a county borough, excluding Llanelly which instead was transferred to the reconstituted Monmouthshire. The area is now governed by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

[edit] Politics

Blaenau Gwent hit the headlines at the 2005 UK General Election when an independent candidate, Peter Law, won the Westminster seat. He had resigned from the Labour Party in protest at the imposition of an all-women candidates' shortlist following the retirement of incumbent MP Llew Smith, and defeated the official Labour candidate, Maggie Jones, by a majority of 9,121 votes. The seat had previously been held by Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot, and was considered one of Labour's safest. Law died April 25, 2006 and in the by-election, a former supporter of his, Dai Davies won, running as an independent candidate. Peter Law's widow, Trish Law won his former Welsh Assembly seat, also running as an independent candidate.