Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group
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The Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group is a socialist political party based in the Blaenau Gwent area of South Wales.
The group was formed in the aftermath of the election to the House of Commons of Peter Law as an independent Member of Parliament, beating the official Labour candidate. Peter Law stood against the controversial decision to impose an all-woman shortlist on the safe Labour seat. His victory was one of only two independent successes at the United Kingdom general election, 2005, the other being Dr Richard Taylor (although George Galloway was also elected for RESPECT - The Unity Coalition).
The BGPVG formed to ensure a continuing independent presence in the constituency, which was considered a more pressing need following the death of Peter Law in April 2006. Two by-elections were required as Peter Law represented the seat at Westminster and as a member of the National Assembly for Wales. The Blaenau Gwent by-elections, 2006 were held on 29 June and resulted in two victories for the Party, with Dai Davies, Peter Law's former election agent, winning the Westminster seat and Law's widow Trish Law taking the Welsh Assembly seat, although neither candidate formally stood as a BGPVG candidate on the ballot papers (Davies stood as an independent and Law used no party description).
It was registered as a Political Party with the Electoral Commission on Jan 30th 2007 under the simple name of People's Voice.[1]
The leader of People's Voice is Dai Davies. It is not apparent whether Trish Law has a role in the leadership of People's Voice.
In March 2007, People's Voice signalled its aim to expand in to other constituencies with Torfaen, Monmouthshire, Islwyn, Newport East, Swansea and Blackpool all being mentioned.[2] (The group threatened to stand in Islwyn in protest against a drug rehabilitation centre.) However, in the nominations for the Assembly Election of May 3rd 2007, Trish Law defended her seat as an independent, and there was a People's Voice candidate only in Torfaen. While Law was successful in retaining her seat, the Group made no gains coming in third in Torfaen with 14.4% of the vote.
