Labour leaders past and present have led the tributes to the long-standing former MP Ann Clwyd after it was announced that she had died at the age of 86. Clwyd represented her Cynon Valley constituency in South Wales for 35 years, eventually becoming the oldest woman to sit in the House of Commons before she stood down at the 2019 election. Clwyd was first elected in a byelection in 1984 and had already served as an MEP for Mid and West Wales for five years in the European parliament. She had been a journalist before entering parliament, writing for the Guardian and Observer until 1979. She held a series of roles during her parliamentary career. She was first made a shadow minister by Neil Kinnock in 1987, but was later sacked for rebelling over further spending on nuclear weapons. She subsequently served as shadow Welsh secretary and shadow international development secretary. As a backbencher when Labour entered government under Tony Blair, she campaigned over the plight of Iraqi Kurds and was a strong supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair said Clwyd was a “courageous, fearless, principled political campaigner, whose politics remained steadfastly wedded to representation of the poor and oppressed wherever in the world she found them”. “She didn’t flinch from speaking her mind, no matter what the personal or political cost,” he said. “She fought the case of those employed in the coal industry, persuading my government to correct the failure to compensate former miners for the ill health they suffered through mining … I admired her enormously and am deeply sorry at her passing. A remarkable woman with an outstanding record of service to others.”
Sir Keir Starmer said he was “incredibly sad” to hear the news. “A long-standing chair of the parliamentary Labour party, Ann was a leading figure in the Labour party, dedicating her life to our movement. My thoughts are with her family and friends.” Jo Stevens, the current shadow Welsh secretary, described her as “a trailblazer for women, not just in Wales but across the UK and abroad”. Welsh secretary David TC Davies praised her as “an exceptional parliamentarian who was a champion of many causes. My thoughts and prayers are with her family”. Kevin Brennan, the Labour MP for Cardiff West, said that Clwyd had remained “a remarkable fighter for working people” even after her retirement from the Commons. “As a constituent of mine, she frequently egged me on to fight injustices that outraged her,” he said. Clwyd’s family said she had died peacefully at her Cardiff home on Friday evening.