Gerald Jones

Gerald Jones
MP
Member of Parliament
for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
Assumed office
8 May 2015
Preceded by Dai Havard
Majority 16,334 (48.7%)
Personal details
Born (1970-08-21) 21 August 1970
Phillipstown, United Kingdom
Political party Labour

Gerald Jones (born 21 August 1970) is a British Labour Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney since the May 2015 general election.[1]

Political career

The industrial decline of the 1980s and the 1984–85 Miner's strike led Gerald, at the age of 14, to become active in the community struggle to support the miners.

He joined the Labour Party in 1988 and has served in a range of roles including Chairperson of New Tredegar Branch Labour Party and the Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney Constituency Labour Party. Between 2003 and 2015, he also played a key role in UK General Elections & Welsh Assembly Election Campaigns across Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney as Election Agent.

Jones was elected as a Labour Councillor to Caerphilly County Borough Council in 1995, representing his home community of New Tredegar. For 20 years, he represented his community and held an active calendar of advice surgeries and attended many community events, being accessible to local residents. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Council and between 2012 and 2015 also served as Cabinet Member for Housing where he drove the council's commitment to delivering the Welsh Housing Quality Standard programme. Gerald also served as the Anti Poverty and Homelessness Champion.

He has a lifelong passion for supporting community empowerment and has actively volunteered with a range of community groups in the New Tredegar area, playing a key role in driving the Phillipstown Community House project and the multi agency New Tredegar Regeneration Strategy, a project that saw around £25million invested in the local area.

He is also member of the GMB and the Co Op Party.

Jones was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney in the 2015 General Election and subsequently re-elected at the 2017 election.

Having served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Wales and Defence teams, he was appointed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Shadow Wales Minister in October 2016 and a Shadow Defence Minister in July 2017.[2][3][4]

As of June 2015, he is one of 125 MPs who employ a member of their family; he employs his partner as a senior parliamentary assistant.[5]

Personal life

Jones was born in 1970 in Phillipstown, New Tredegar: a small community in the Upper Rhymney Valley.

Before becoming an MP spent 15 years working in the third sector, primarily in community development where he supported a large number of charities and community groups with development, funding applications and training needs.

He is openly gay[6] and employs his partner, Tyrone Powell as his Senior Parliamentary Assistant.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney parliamentary constituency – Election 2015 – BBC News". bbc.co.uk. London: BBC News. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
  2. ↑ "Reshuffle 2: The Maintenance of the Malcontents". New Socialist. 2017-07-08. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  3. ↑ "About me". Gerald Jones MP. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  4. ↑ "Gerald Jones MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  5. ↑ Mason, Rowena (29 June 2015). "Keeping it in the family: new MPs continue to hire relatives as staff". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
  6. ↑ "Does the UK now have the most LGB elected MPs in the world?". PinkNews. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  7. ↑ "House of Commons - The Register of Members' Financial Interests (10 April 2017: Jones, Gerald )". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Dai Havard		 Member of Parliament
for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
2015–present		 Incumbent
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