John Marek | |
---|---|
Leader of Forward Wales | |
In office 8 November 2003 –February 2010 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Leader of the John Marek Independent Party | |
In office 31 March 2003 –8 November 2003 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Deputy Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly | |
In office 2 May 2000 –7 May 2007 | |
Presiding Officer | The Lord Elis-Thomas |
Preceded by | Jane Davidson |
Succeeded by | Rosemary Butler |
Member of the Welsh Assembly for Wrexham | |
In office 6 May 1999 –3 May 2007 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Lesley Griffiths |
Member of Parliament for Wrexham | |
In office 9 June 1983 –14 May 2001 | |
Preceded by | Tom Ellis |
Succeeded by | Ian Lucas |
Personal details | |
Born | London,England | 24 December 1940
Political party | Conservative (2010–2016) |
Other political affiliations | Forward Wales (2003–10) John Marek Independent (2003) Labour (1983–2003) |
Alma mater | King's College London |
John Marek (born 24 December 1940) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wrexham from 1983 to 2001,and the Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for Wrexham from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party until 2003,he successfully stood for re-election to the Welsh Assembly as a John Marek Independent Party candidate. Marek founded and led Forward Wales from 2003 until 2010,when the party was disbanded and he joined the Conservatives. [1]
Born in London,England and of Czech descent,Marek would be the only Czech-speaking MP during his tenure. [2] He was educated at Chatham House Grammar School and at King's College London where he earned a BSc in Mathematics in 1962,and a PhD in Mathematics in 1965. He became a lecturer in applied mathematics at Aberystwyth University.
Marek was elected a member of Ceredigion District Council in 1979 and served until 1983;he was chair of its finance sub-committee in the year 1982–83.
Having previously unsuccessfully contested Ludlow in October 1974,Marek was elected as Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Wrexham Westminster constituency in 1983 and served as a party spokesman on Treasury matters,although he was not offered a government post in 1997. [2]
As a supporter of devolution,he chose to move to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999,and stood down from the UK Parliament in 2001. In the Assembly he became increasingly known as a maverick. In 2000,he was elected as Deputy Presiding Officer against the candidate preferred by the Labour leadership. This move,and his frequent criticisms of the Labour-led Wrexham County Borough led to his deselection as the Labour Party's candidate for the National Assembly elections of 1 May 2003. [3]
Marek then stood as a candidate for the John Marek Independent Party and defeated the official Labour Party candidate,Lesley Griffiths,a former secretary of his,by 973 votes. Later that year he formed a new political party called Forward Wales (Welsh :Cymru Ymlaen). [4] He ran for re-election in the 2007 Welsh Assembly election,but was defeated by Labour's Lesley Griffiths by 1,250 votes,thanks to a swing to the Conservatives,Liberal Democrats,and UKIP. [5]
On 29 March 2010,Marek joined the Conservative Party, [1] and was a member until 2016. He was confirmed as the party's candidate for the 2011 Welsh Assembly election where he again came second to Griffiths,by 3,335 votes in the Wrexham constituency. [6] [7]
Marek is one of three Welsh MPs or AMs to win a constituency as both a party candidate and an independent,following S. O. Davies who was MP for Merthyr Tydfil from 1934 until his death in 1972,who was deselected by the local Labour Party on grounds of age prior to the 1970 general election but ran against the official candidate as an independent and won;and Peter Law who was barred from contesting his seat for Labour due to an all-woman shortlist being imposed [8]
In 2006,Marek was appointed as Vice President of Wrexham A.F.C. by then owners Nev Dickens and Geoff Moss. He remained in the position until the club passed into the ownership of the Wrexham Supporters Trust.
The John Marek Independent Party (JMIP) was a political party in North Wales which eventually evolved into Forward Wales.
Ronald Davies is a retired Welsh politician, former Secretary of State for Wales, former Member of Parliament and former member of the Welsh Assembly. He describes himself as a politician belonging to the "traditional left" who had "spent his life looking for a socialist progressive party". He was a member of the Labour Party, and then of Forward Wales (2004–2009); he was subsequently an independent candidate and eventually joined Plaid Cymru in 2010.
Forward Wales was a socialist political party operating in Wales. It evolved from the John Marek Independent Party (JMIP), formed by the ex-Labour member of the Welsh Assembly, John Marek who was the party's national convenor.
Laura Anne Jones is a Conservative politician who has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for the South Wales East electoral region since July 2020, having previously held the same seat as an Assembly Member (AM) in the National Assembly for Wales between 2003 and 2007. Jones also served as a county councillor for the Wyesham ward in Monmouthshire County Council from 2017 to 2022.
The Wales Green Party is a semi-autonomous political party within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW). It covers Wales, and is the only regional party with semi-autonomous status within the GPEW. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats.
Peter John Law 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 member of Parliament (MP) and AM for the same constituency.
Roderick Richards was a British politician who was leader of the Welsh Conservatives from 1996 to 1999, and a Welsh Assembly member (AM) for the North Wales region from 1999 until 2003.
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.
Jonathan Morgan, is a Welsh Conservative politician, who served as a Conservative Assembly Member (AM) for South Wales Central from 1999 to 2007 and AM for Cardiff North from 2007 to 2011. In the National Assembly elections in 2011 he was beaten by Labour's candidate Julie Morgan, wife of former First Minister Rhodri Morgan. He is currently chair of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Chairman of the Welsh NHS Confederation.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Wales, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who has served as an MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has one elected member in the Senedd and one Welsh seat in the UK House of Commons. It also has several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councillors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.
The 2011 National Assembly for Wales election was an election for the National Assembly. The poll was held on 5 May 2011 and decided the incumbency for all the Assembly's seats. It was the fourth election for seats in the National Assembly for Wales, and the second election taken under the rules of the Government of Wales Act 2006.
Jeffrey Hambley Cuthbert is a Welsh politician. He served as Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner from 2016 to 2024. Cuthbert served as a Labour Party member of the National Assembly for Wales for Caerphilly from 2003 to 2016. He began his career in the mining industry and later worked for the Welsh Joint Education Committee as head of the Asset to Industry Unit.
Susan Lesley Griffiths is a Welsh Labour politician who was Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice from March to July 2024. She previously served as Trefnydd of the Senedd and Minister for North Wales from 2021 to 2024, and Minister for Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2024. She worked as a secretary to John Marek and the constituency assistant to Ian Lucas, successive Members of Parliament for Wrexham, and was elected to the Senedd from the Wrexham constituency in 2007. She has held a number of cabinet positions in the Welsh Government. In December 2009 she was appointed Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills.
Margaret Delyth Evans is a Welsh executive and former politician who served as Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment in the National Assembly for Wales from 2000 to 2003. A member of the Labour Party, she was the Assembly Member (AM) for Mid and West Wales from 2000 until her retirement from the National Assembly in 2003. In 2010, she became the chief executive of the charity Dress For Success London, where she remained until 2014. She has also been a director at the Film Agency for Wales, a trustee at the charity United Response, and has sat on the board of Sport Wales since 2019.
This article lists the election results of the Green Party of England and Wales in the UK parliamentary, European parliamentary, London Assembly, and Senedd elections.
The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the Scottish Parliament election took place. This election was preceded by the previous Assembly election in 2003.
Aled Rhys Roberts was a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician from Rhosllanerchrugog, Wrexham. Roberts was a Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for the North Wales Region from 2011 to 2016. Before his election to the assembly, he was a councillor and the leader of Wrexham County Borough Council. He served as the Welsh Language Commissioner from 2019 until his death in 2022.
The 2016 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 5 May 2016, to elect members (AMs) of the National Assembly for Wales, now known as the Senedd. It was the fifth election for the National Assembly, the third election taken under the rules of the Government of Wales Act 2006 and the first since the Wales Act 2014.
The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, or in Wales, simply Abolish, is a registered single issue political party in Wales. It campaigns for the abolition of the Senedd, formerly known as the "National Assembly for Wales", the devolved legislature of Wales. Abolish advocates that devolved powers be returned to the Secretary of State for Wales within the UK Central Government and the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster.
David John Rowlands is a Welsh politician, who was a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East from 2016 to 2021. Elected as an MS for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Rowlands joined the Brexit Party in 2019. He later joined the Independent Alliance for Reform group in the Senedd in October 2020.