Jeffrey Cuthbert

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Jeffrey Hambley Cuthbert (born 4 June 1948) is a Welsh politician who has been a Labour Party member of the National Assembly for Wales for Caerphilly since 2003. He began his career in the mining industry and later worked for the Welsh Joint Education Committee as Head of the Asset to Industry Unit.

Cuthbert was born in Glasgow but brought up in Cardiff, where he attended Whitchurch County Secondary Modern followed by studying mining engineering at University College, Cardiff. He joined the Labour Party in the mid-1960s. As a mining engineer he worked at Markham and Oakdale pits.

Briefly a member of the Militant Tendency,^[1] Cuthbert later became Chair of Caerphilly Constituency Labour Party. He left the mining industry to develop qualifications for Modern Apprenticeships with the WJEC, and became a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He was a governor of the Lewis School, Pengam, and served as Principal of a part-time Adult Education Centre at Aberbargoed.

In the 2003 election to the National Assembly for Wales, Cuthbert was selected at the last minute to replace Ron Davies who had been involved in a sexual scandal and was forced to retire; despite the circumstances he increased the Labour majority in the Caerphilly constituency.

Cuthbert was appointed Chair of the Objective One Programme Monitoring Committee for Wales in 2004, and became founder and Chair of the Assembly's All Party Group on Healthy Living and the All Party Group on Older People and Ageing. As an active member of the Amicus Trade Union, he became co-ordinator of the Amicus Group of Labour Assembly Members. At the 2007 election he successfully defended his seat after Ron Davies challenged to regain it as an Independent candidate.