John Marek

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John Marek (born 24 December 1940), is the leader of the Welsh political party Forward Wales. He has represented the Wrexham Welsh Assembly constituency at the National Assembly for Wales since 1999.

He was elected as Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Wrexham Westminster constituency in 1983 and served as a party spokesman on Treasury matters, although he was not offered a government post in 1997. Of Czech descent, he was the only Czech-speaking Member of the UK Parliament.

As a supporter of devolution he chose to move to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, and stood down from the UK Parliament in 2001. In the Assembly he became increasingly known as a maverick. In 2001 he was elected as Deputy Presiding Officer against the candidate preferred by the Labour leadership. This move, and his frequent criticisms of the Labour-led Wrexham County Borough led to his deselection as the Labour Party's candidate for the National Assembly elections of 1 May 2003.

He then stood as a candidate for the John Marek Independent Party and defeated the official Labour Party candidate by 673 votes.

Later that year he formed a new political party called Forward Wales (Cymru Ymlaen).

In 2006, he was appointed a vice president of Wrexham FC by new owners Nev Dickens and Geoff Moss. This appointment was viewed with some concern by many fans of the club, as he had previously supported the bid of ex-chairman Mark Guterman when Guterman was trying to regain control of the club.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Tom Ellis	Member of Parliament for Wrexham 1983–2001	Succeeded by Ian Lucas
National Assembly for Wales
Preceded by (new post)	Assemby Member for Wrexham 1999 – present	Incumbent