Gerald Jones (born 21 August 1970) is a
Welsh Labour Party
Welsh Labour ( cy, Llafur Cymru) is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 192 ...
politician. He has been the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney since
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
and has served as a Shadow
Welsh Office
The Welsh Office ( cy, Swyddfa Gymreig) was a department in the Government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Wales. It was established in April 1965 to execute government policy in Wales, and was headed by the Secretary of State f ...
minister.
Political career
The industrial decline of the 1980s and the
1984–85 Miner's strike led Jones, at the age of 14, to become active in the community struggle to support miners.
He joined the Labour Party in 1988 and has served in a range of roles including Chairperson of New Tredegar Branch Labour Party and the
Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney Constituency Labour Party. Between 2003 and 2015, he also played a role in UK General Elections and Welsh Assembly Election Campaigns across Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney as Election Agent.
Jones was elected as a Labour Councillor to
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Caerphilly County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili) is the governing body for Caerphilly County Borough, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The last full council elections took place 5 May 2022.
Political control
The ...
in 1995, representing his home community of
New Tredegar
New Tredegar ( cy, Tredegar Newydd) is a former mining town and community in the Rhymney Valley, Caerphilly county borough, Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire.
New Tredegar is now home to 'The Winding House', a county museum ...
. For 20 years, he represented his community and held an active calendar of advice surgeries and attended many community events, being accessible to local residents. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Council and between 2012 and 2015 also served as Cabinet Member for Housing where he drove the council's commitment to delivering the Welsh Housing Quality Standard programme. Jones also served as the Anti Poverty and Homelessness Champion.
He is also member of the
GMB union
The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...
and the
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 ...
.
He supported
Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in the failed attempt to replace
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
in the
2016 Labour leadership election.
Jones was first elected as the
Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney in the
2015 General Election and was subsequently re-elected at the
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
elections.
Having served as a
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Wales and Defence teams, he was appointed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Shadow Wales Minister in October 2016 and a Shadow Defence Minister in July 2017.
As of June 2015, he is one of 125 MPs who employ a member of their family; he employs his partner as a senior parliamentary assistant.
Personal life
Jones was born in 1970 in
Phillipstown, New Tredegar: a small community in the Upper Rhymney Valley.
He is openly gay
and employs his partner, Tyrone Powell as his Senior Parliamentary Assistant.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Gerald
1970 births
Welsh Labour Party MPs
LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
LGBT politicians from Wales
Gay politicians
Living people
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present