The Lord Touhig | |
---|---|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans | |
In office 11 May 2005 –5 May 2006 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Ivor Caplin |
Succeeded by | Tom Watson |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs | |
In office 12 June 2003 –10 May 2005 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales | |
In office 11 June 2001 –10 May 2005 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | David Hanson |
Succeeded by | Nick Ainger |
Member of the House of Lords | |
Assumed office 30 June 2010 Life Peerage | |
Member of Parliament for Islwyn | |
In office 16 February 1995 –12 April 2010 | |
Preceded by | Neil Kinnock |
Succeeded by | Chris Evans |
Personal details | |
Born | Abersychan,Monmouthshire,Wales | 5 December 1947
Political party | Labour and Co-operative |
Spouse | Jennifer Hughes (m. 1968;died 2014) |
Children | 4 |
James Donnelly Touhig, Baron Touhig PC KSS (born 5 December 1947), known as Don Touhig, is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islwyn from 1995 to 2010. [1] A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he served in government as an Assistant Whip from 1999 to 2001 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from 2001 to 2006.
He went to St Francis RC School in Abersychan near Pontypool, then the Mid Gwent College (now Coleg Gwent) in Pontypool. Before entering parliament, he had been a journalist from 1968 to 1976. From 1976 to 1990, he was the Editor of the Free Press of Monmouthshire (Monmouth Free Press). From 1988 to 1992, he was the general manager and Editor-in-Chief of the Free Press Group of newspapers. He was the general manager (business development) of the Bailey Group from 1992 to 1993, then of Bailey Print from 1993 to 1995. He served on Gwent County Council from 1973 to 1995. He joined the TGWU in 1962 and the Labour Party in 1966.
Touhig contested the Richmond and Barnes constituency at the 1992 general election, but reached third-place behind the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates. Following the resignation of Neil Kinnock, former Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, he was elected to succeed him as MP for Islwyn at the by-election on 16 February 1995.
From 1996 to 1997, Touhig was a Member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, from May 1997 to July 1999. He had to resign as PPS in 1999, when he confessed to receiving a leaked Social Security Select Committee report on Child benefit. [2] He was later suspended for three days from the Commons. [3]
He was appointed to serve as an Assistant Whip from November 1999 to June 2001. He was a junior minister at the Ministry of Defence, with special responsibility for veterans, but left government in the May 2006 reshuffle. [4] He was made a Member of the Privy Council on 19 July 2006.
In Paul Flynn's 1999 book Dragons and Poodles, he was described as being the "seamstress-in-chief of stitch ups", that he could be "ambitious" and "can be pompous". [5]
On 29 January 2010, Touhig announced that he would stand down at the 2010 General Election. [6]
On 28 June 2010, Touhig was made a life peer in the House of Lords as Baron Touhig, of Islwyn and Glansychan in the County of Gwent. [7]
He was appointed to the opposition front bench as a Whip and Shadow Spokesperson for Defence in September 2015, serving as a Whip until September 2016 and a Defence Spokesperson until October 2017. He returned to the defence brief from April 2020 to May 2021.
Touhig was married on 21 September 1968 to Jennifer Hughes. She died in 2014 from cancer, aged 67. [8] They have two sons and two daughters.
He is a papal knight of the Order of Saint Sylvester (KSS).
Geoffrey William Hoon is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Government Chief Whip.
Paul Peter Murphy, Baron Murphy of Torfaen, is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torfaen from 1987 to 2015, and served in the Cabinet from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2009 in the roles of Northern Irish and Welsh Secretary. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Elizabeth Marion Blackman is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Erewash from 1997 to 2010. She served as a Government Whip from 2007 to 2008.
Robert John Blizzard was a British Labour politician who served as member of Parliament (MP) for the Suffolk constituency of Waveney from 1997 until 2010.
Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ogmore since 2016. He was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ogmore from 2002 to 2016.
Sir Alan Campbell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tynemouth since 1997. He was appointed as Chief Whip of the Labour Party in May 2021.
Wayne David MP is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly since 2001. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1994 to 1998. As a Member of the European Parliament, he represented South Wales from 1989 to 1994 and South Wales Central from 1994 to 1999.
Eric Stuart Joyce is a Scottish politician, former military officer and convicted child sex offender. A former member of the Labour Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk, formerly Falkirk West, from 2000 to 2015.
Gillian Joanna Merron, Baroness Merron is a British politician and life peer serving as Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews since 2014. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a shadow spokesperson for Health and Social Care since 2021. She was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1997 to 2010 and held several ministerial offices in the Blair and Brown governments.
Monmouth is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The seat was created for the 1918 general election. Since 2005 the Member of Parliament (MP) has been David Davies of the Conservative Party.
Islwyn is a constituency in Wales represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The area, historically known for coal-mining, has voted for Labour Party candidates since it was created effective at the 1983 general election. Islwyn's first Member of Parliament (MP) was Neil Kinnock, who represented it until he resigned from Parliament in 1995. Kinnock also served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 until 1992. The constituency's current MP is Chris Evans, first elected at the 2010 general election.
Jessica Elizabeth Morden is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport East since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she was General Secretary of Welsh Labour from 1999 until her election to Parliament.
Two by-elections were held for the constituency of Blaenau Gwent in Wales following the death of Member of Parliament and Assembly Member Peter Law on 25 April 2006. As Law was the MP and Assembly Member (AM), his death required by-elections in both the parliamentary seat and the equivalent Welsh Assembly constituency. The two elections polled on the same day, 29 June, as a by-election in Bromley and Chislehurst. A win by the Labour Party in the AM by-election would have restored their majority in the Welsh Assembly, which was lost when Law was expelled from the party.
Nicholas Desmond John Smith is a Welsh Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Blaenau Gwent since 2010. From 1998 to 2006 he was a councillor in the London Borough of Camden.
Christopher James Evans is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islwyn since 2010. He is a member of the Labour and Co-operative parties.
Gareth Alan Johnson is a British politician and former lawyer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts from September to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from February to September 2022 and Assistant Government Whip from 2018 to 2019 and 2021 to 2022. Johnson was first elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dartford, winning the seat from Labour. He has been supportive of Leave Means Leave, a Eurosceptic pressure group.
Sir Gavin Alexander Williamson is a British politician who most recently served as Minister of State without Portfolio from 25 October to 8 November 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Staffordshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, Williamson previously served in Theresa May's Cabinet as Government Chief Whip from 2016 to 2017, Secretary of State for Defence from 2017 to 2019, and as Secretary of State for Education under Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2021.
Andrew Iain Lewer is a British Conservative Party politician. Elected as the Member of Parliament for Northampton South in the 2017 general election, he previously served as Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands from 2014 to 2017. He is the only person in the UK to have served as a Council Leader, MEP and MP.
Gerald Jones is a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney since 2015. He has been Shadow Minister for Scotland since 2023 and previously served as a Shadow Wales Office minister.
The Pontypool Free Press is an English language weekly regional newspaper that was originally published in Pontypool, as the Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills, in 1859 and is circulated in Pontypool and the surrounding area of Torfaen, in south-east Wales.