Siân Catherine James (born 24 June 1959) is a Welsh Labour Party politician, who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea East from

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Early life

She spent most of her childhood in the Swansea Valley, where her parents ran a public house. She attended Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School on Afan Valley Road in

Cimla Cimla is a village and suburb of the town of Neath in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It is set high up on a hill. It is pronounced Kim-la. The Welsh language spelling is Cymla, pronounced the same way. Its meaning is a place wit ...

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

. James married at age 16 and had two children by age 20. Living as a young housewife, James said: "As long as my lace curtains were the cleanest, my children immaculately dressed, their hand-knitted clothes made with love, I was happy." During the 1984 miners' strike, James helped feed over 1,000 families a week from nine different centres. After the strike, James decided to take her

A-Levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

, before attending

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

. In the 2014 film ''

Pride Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

'',

Jessica Gunning Jessica Faye Gunning (born 1 January 1986) is an English actress. She has appeared in the TV series '' White Heat'' (2012), '' What Remains'' (2013), ''Back'' (2017–2021), and '' The Outlaws'' (2021–2024). She received widespread critical a ...

portrays a young Siân James during the time of the miners' strike.

Career

After raising her children, she attended

as a mature student, studying for a degree in the

Welsh Language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

. She was heavily involved with the students' union and an enthusiastic member of the women's group. After graduation, she worked for a series of organisations, with her final role before entering Parliament as Director of Welsh Women's Aid.

Political career

As a young mother, James became involved in the family support networks surrounding the 1984 miners' strike, that were working to safeguard

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

communities and the way of life. After the end of the strike, she became involved in women's rights campaigns. In 2004 she resigned from the role in Welsh Women's Aid to stand as the Labour Party candidate in Swansea East. She was elected in May 2005 with a majority of 11,249 votes, the first woman to represent Swansea East and one of only eight women MPs from Wales. After being elected to Parliament, James was Parliamentary Private Secretary to both Gareth Thomas, the

Minister of State for Trade The Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security, formerly Minister of State for Trade Policy and Minister of State for Trade, is a mid-level role at the Department for Business and Trade in the Government of the United Kingdom. I ...

, and to Paul Murphy, the

Welsh secretary The secretary of state for Wales (), also referred to as the Welsh secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Wales Office. The incumbent is a me ...

, until resigning in March 2009. She cited overwork as the cause of her resignation but it also allowed her to sign the

early day motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by a member of Parliament, which the Government (in charge of parliamentary business) has not yet scheduled for debate. Hi ...

opposing the part

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of the

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. On 25 February 2014, James announced her intention to stand down at the 2015 general election, saying that she wanted to spend more time campaigning out of Parliament. On 26 September 2014, James was one of 25 Labour MPs who broke party discipline to vote against renewed air strikes in Iraq. She was placed number 1 on the South Wales West Labour list for the

2021 Senedd election The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It was the sixth Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for ...

. As Labour had taken all the constituency seats in the region, she was not elected.

References

External links

Siân James MP
Welsh Labour Party profile *
Meet the MP: Sian James
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 4 August 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Sian Catherine 1959 births Living people Welsh-speaking politicians Politicians from Swansea Alumni of Swansea University Welsh Labour MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Swansea constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 21st-century British women politicians