Gwynoro Jones

Gwynoro Glyndwr Jones (born 21 November 1942) is a former British / Welsh politician.

Before entering Parliament he was Public Relations Officer for the Labour Party in Wales 1968 and, together with Emrys Jones, Regional Organiser for the Wales Labour Party and Gwyn Morgan, Assistant General Secretary to the UK Party, he drafted Labour's evidence to the Crowther/Kilbrandon Royal Commission on the Constitution.

In 1970, he became MP at 27 years of age when elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen, defeating the president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans with a majority of 3,600 votes. Having held on to the seat in an historic election that had five recounts by just 3 votes in the February 1974 general election, he lost the seat back to Evans by 3,640 votes in the October election of that year. When MP he was in 1974 Parliamentary Secretary to Rt Hon Roy Jenkins the Home Secretary and was also a member of the Council of Europe. Throughout his time in Parliament he campaigned for more devolution to Wales an issue that split the Welsh Labour Party deeply.

In 1981 he helped establish the Social Democratic Party and together with Tom Ellis former MP for Wrexham and others created a powerful Welsh voice within the UK SDP. Gwynoro Jones stood in the Gower by-election of 1982 where Labour's 19,000 majority was reduced to 7,000. He was Chair of the SDP in Wales for two three-year periods before the merger of the SDP with the Liberals. During the days of the SDP-Liberal Alliance he chaired its National Committee in Wales for the whole period 1983 to 1989. In the 1980s Gwynoro became a powerful advocate for constitutional and electoral reform and was a renowned orator at conferences and public meetings across the UK. A strong advocate of the alliance with the Liberals he was often at loggerheads with David Owen.

When the Liberal Democrats Party was formed he stood for the Presidency and received over 10,000 votes. He topped the poll in the vote for the party's National Committee and became vice chair of the Policy Committee. In 1992 he stood for the Hereford seat and received over 23,000 votes.

After that Gwynoro concentrated on his business activities and from 1993 to date heads EPPC-Severn Crossing Ltd a school inspection and conferencing business. The company has inspected some 3,000 schools in England and Wales and a similar total of playgroups and nursery settings. In August 2012 the BBC reported that EPPC-Severn Crossing had debts of £180,000 and a number of sub-contracted inspectors had not been paid for inspections they had done.[1] In addition to being a Lay Inspector of schools he is also an Investors in People Adviser/Assessor, External Assessor Performance Management of Headteachers, External Assessor for EFQM European Business Excellence Model, Consultant/Assessor Law Society Lexcel Standard and Leath Inspectorate Wales lay inspector.

When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party he applied to rejoin the Labour Party. The local party in Swansea West turned his application down but the Prime Minister's Office intervened and he was allowed to rejoin. However he received 'no welcome back in the valleys 'and was ostracised from the beginning'. In fact he went to one meeting of the local party in Swansea and another in Gower. After that he tried to be selected on to Labour's panel of potential candidates for the first Assembly elections in Wales and was not accepted.

He stood as an independent in the National Assembly elections of 2007, but rejoined the Liberal Democrats in 2011, citing Nick Clegg's courage in entering a coalition.[2]

His eldest son, Glyndwr Cennydd Jones, was Plaid Cymru's candidate for the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency for the National Assembly for Wales general election in May 2007.[3]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19202893
  2. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/betsanpowys/2011/03/brand_detoxofication.html
  3. ↑ "Politician is keeping up the family tradition", icWales.co.uk, 14 December 2006

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Gwynfor Evans		 Member of Parliament for Carmarthen
1970 – October 1974 		Succeeded by
Gwynfor Evans