Ron Davies (Welsh politician)

The Right Honourable Ron Davies (born August 6, 1945) is a Welsh politician, former Member of Parliament and former member of the Welsh Assembly. He became well known in the UK more for his love of badger watching, than for his political achievements.

He was elected MP for Caerphilly in 1983. He was an opposition junior frontbench spokesman until 1992, when he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. He caused a minor storm when he declared that Charles, Prince of Wales was unsuitable for the Principality and that a Republic should be established. He took the real post after the 1997 general election.

In late 1997 he successfully led the referendum campaign to establish the Welsh Assembly, but the slender majority and poor turnout (resulting in only 1 in 4 voters in Wales actually voting for the Assembly) cast a shadow over the institution's authority. Davies was then selected as Labour's leader in Wales and candidate for the position of First Secretary of Wales, pending elections in May 1999. However in late 1998 a scandal erupted when he was robbed at knifepoint after going for a meal with a man he had met while walking on Clapham Common in London, a well-known gay meeting place. The full details of the incident (which he famously called a "moment of madness") have never emerged, and he was forced to step down as both Secretary of State for Wales and the Labour Party's candidate to lead the new Welsh Assembly. He was, however, elected to the Assembly and initially chaired the Finance Committee, until further revelations and disagreements with the Labour leadership resulted in his resignation. He stood down from Parliament at the 2001 general election.

Shortly before the 2003 assembly elections, The Sun revealed that Davies had been visiting a well known cruising spot near a motorway layby. When challenged as to what he had been doing there, Davies claimed to have been looking for badgers, a response which caused hilarity; Davies was forced to stand down as Labour candidate in the election.

He resigned from the Labour Party in 2004, citing opposition to the Iraq War and worries about the competence of the Welsh Labour Party. He has since joined the new Forward Wales political party, and stood for election to the European Parliament in June 2004 as a candidate of that party but failed to be elected.

External links

• Ron Davies's former home page

Preceded by: William Hague

Secretary of State for Wales 1997–1998

Followed by: Alun Michael

---

See also Ron Davies (Australian politician)