Ednyfed Hudson Davies, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Caerphilly, has died aged 88.
Mr Davies was elected as the constituency’s MP in 1979 and later defected to the breakaway Social Democratic Party, made up of Labour MPs who believed the party had gone too far to the left.
In the same year that Margaret Thatcher was swept to power, Mr Davies, an advocate of devolution, won Caerphilly by 18,497 votes.
In November 1981 he told the constituency party he would not seek reselection and weeks later joined the newly formed SDP.
He said at the time: “I feel the Labour Party is no longer able to serve as an effective opposition or a viable alternative government.”
He was the 27th MP, and the third from Wales, to join the fledgling party.
Knowing he had little chance of success in the 1983 general election, in which future Welsh Secretary Ron Davies was elected Caerphilly MP for Labour, he decided to stand in Basingstoke for the SDP and came second.
Prior to his time as Caerphilly MP, Mr Davies was chairman of the Wales Tourist Board and before that was an MP for Conwy.
Mr Davies married Amanda Barker-Mill in 1972 and had two daughters; the marriage was dissolved in 1994. In 2016 he married Dr Susan Owen.
Mr Davies passed away on January 11 this year.