The 1984 Cynon Valley by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 3 May 1984 for the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Cynon Valley Cynon Valley () is a former coal mining valley in Wales. Cynon Valley lies between Rhondda and the Merthyr Valley and takes its name from the River Cynon. Aberdare is located in the north of the valley and Mountain Ash is in the south of t ...

Previous MP

The seat had become vacant on 10 February 1984. The constituency's

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament (MP), Ioan Lyonel Evans (10 July 1927 – 10 February 1984), had died at the age of 56. Evans was a

Labour Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidat ...

politician. He was educated at

Llanelli Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. ...

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and Swansea University College. He served on the

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ) is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, ...

education committee and acted as Labour Party agent for the general elections in 1955 and 1959 in Birmingham Small Heath. He was secretary of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and District

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. Established in 1917, the Co-operative Party was founded by co-operative societies to campaign politically for the fair ...

. Evans was elected as

MP for

Birmingham Yardley Birmingham Yardley is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jess Phillips of the Labour Party. Yardley Rural District was annexed to Birmingham under the 1911 ...

at the 1964 general election, but lost the seat in 1970. He was

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from 1968 to 1970. At the February 1974 general election he was returned for the

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seat of

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

which was abolished in 1983, with Evans taking the new seat of Cynon Valley.

Candidates

Seven candidates were nominated. 1. Mrs Ann Clwyd Roberts (usually known as Ann Clwyd), born 21 March 1937, a broadcaster and journalist was selected to run for

. She had been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for

Mid and West Wales Mid and West Wales or Mid and South West Wales refers to an ambiguous region of Wales that is sometimes used, consisting broadly of the preserved counties of Dyfed and Powys, sometimes Swansea and sometimes parts of Gwynedd. It is also used ...

1979–1984 and had contested the Westminster seat of

Denbigh Denbigh (; cy, Dinbych; ) is a market town and a community in Denbighshire, Wales. Formerly, the county town, the Welsh name translates to "Little Fortress"; a reference to its historic castle. Denbigh lies near the Clwydian Hills. History ...

in 1970. After winning the by-election, she held the seat until her retirement in 2019. 2. Felix Franc Elfed Aubel, a postgraduate research student born in 1960 was the candidate of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP) and represented the SDP-Liberal Alliance. He had contested the same seat in the 1983 general election. 3. Clayton Francis Jones was nominated by

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

. He was a 31-year-old coach operator and was a member of Taff-Ely Borough Council and Mid-Glamorgan County Council. 4. James Norwich Arbuthnot, a barrister born in 1952, represented the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. He had been a Councillor in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea since 1978. Arbuthnot contested this constituency in 1983. He became a Conservative MP in 1987 and sat until 2015, when he joined The House of Lords. 5. Mrs Mary Winter represented the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. She was a senior social services officer with Mid-Glamorgan County Council and was aged 36 at the time of the by-election. 6. Noel Edmundbury Rencontre was an Independent candidate, who sought election under the ballot paper label ''Womble Independent''. 7. Paul Nicholls-Jones was an Independent candidate.

Result

Sources

* ''Britain Votes/Europe Votes By-Election Supplement 1983-'', compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1985) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cynon Valley By-Election, 1984 1984 elections in the United Kingdom 1984 in Wales 1980s elections in Wales By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Welsh constituencies Politics of Rhondda Cynon Taf May 1984 events in the United Kingdom

Previous MP

Candidates

Result

See also

Sources