The Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

based in the

Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw ...

area of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The party was formed in the aftermath of the election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Peter Law Peter John Law (1 April 1948 – 25 April 2006) was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent membe ...

as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Member of Parliament, beating the official

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 ...

candidate. Peter Law stood against the official party candidate after an internal party row. His victory was one of three independent successes in the 2005 general election, the other two being Dr Richard Taylor (Health Concern - Wyre Forest) and

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...

(RESPECT - Bethnal Green and Bow). Dai Davies (Law's agent) was elected at a by-election following Law's death in 2006. At the 2010 general election, Davies lost the seat to Labour. The BGPVG formed with the purpose of ensuring 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 Law represented the seat at Westminster and as a member of the

National Assembly for Wales The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English language, English and () in Welsh language, Welsh, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes ...

. The 2006 Blaenau Gwent by-elections were held on 29 June 2006 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 Patricia Law, née Bolter (born 17 March 1954) is a Welsh politician who was the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice AM for Blaenau Gwent in Wales between 2006 and 2011. Background Patricia Bolter was born in Nantyglo, Blaenau Gwent, in 1954. She wa ...

taking the Welsh Assembly seat. Neither candidate formally stood as a BGPVG candidate on the ballot papers (Davies stood as an independent and Law used no party description). Davies held the seat until he was overwhelmingly defeated by Labour's Nick Smith by over 10,500 votes at the 2010 General Election, a swing from BGPV to Labour of 29.2%. It was registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission on 30 January 2007 under the simple name of People's Voice. In March 2007, People's Voice signalled its aim to expand into other constituencies with

Torfaen Torfaen (; cy, Torfaen ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south ...

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

Islwyn The Borough of Islwyn was one of five local government districts of Gwent from 1974 to 1996. History The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government district of Gwent. It covered the whole area of three former districts and part of a four ...

, Newport East,

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

all being mentioned. However, in the nominations for the Assembly Election of May 2007, Trish Law defended her seat as an independent, and there was a People's Voice candidate only in

. While Law was successful in retaining her seat, the Group made no gains coming in third in Torfaen with 14.4% of the vote. In the 2008 Welsh local elections People's Voice gained eight council seats, five in Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and 3 in Torfaen County Borough Council. The Torfaen People's Voice Group has since broken up over an internal dispute over Blaenau Gwent PV Group wanting to impose a candidate on Torfaen. In June 2010 Dai Davies said he was standing down as leader of the group and was retiring from politics. In August 2010 the party was disbanded and all five BGPVG Councillors resigned from party and sat as Independents on the Council. The party planned to become a pressure group. On 20 September 2010, the only People's Voice representative,

AM, announced that she would not seek re-election at the 2011 Assembly election. There were talks for the former MP Dai Davies to stand in place of Law, but he decided not to.

References

External links

Blaenau Gwent People's Voice website
{{Political parties in Wales 2005 establishments in Wales 2010 disestablishments in Wales Politics of Blaenau Gwent Defunct political parties in Wales Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Locally based political parties in Wales Political parties established in 2005 Political parties disestablished in 2010