Who was Ann Clwyd? Former UK MP Dead at 86

Ann Clwyd was a former UK Member of Parliament who was in government for more than three decades. She served as a Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley for 35 years from 1984 to 2019.

She was persuaded to stand for Parliament by Huw T. Edwards, who felt that there should be more women in parliament. She was the unsuccessful Labour candidate in Denbigh in 1970 and Gloucester in October 1974.

Clwyd was the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1979 to 1984, for Mid and West Wales. She was elected to Parliament in a by-election in May 1984 following the death of Ioan Evans and became the first woman to sit for a Welsh valleys constituency.

She died peacefully at her home in Cardiff on Friday, July 21, 2023, at the age of 86. No immediate survivor was named. However, it is known that she did not have any biological children. Her husband, Owen Roberts died in October 2012 at the age of 73.