Denzil Davies

The Right Honourable Denzil Davies
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In office 26 October 1984 – 14 June 1988
Leader	Neil Kinnock
Preceded by	John Silkin
Succeeded by	Martin O'Neill
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
In office 20 March 1983 – 31 October 1983
Leader	Michael Foot
Preceded by	Alec Jones
Succeeded by	Barry Jones
Minister of State at the Treasury
In office 17 June 1975 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	James Callaghan
Preceded by	Robert Sheldon
Succeeded by	Arthur Cockfield Peter Rees
Member of Parliament for Llanelli
In office 19 June 1970 – 11 April 2005
Preceded by	Jim Griffiths
Succeeded by	Nia Griffith
Personal details
Born	(1938-10-09) 9 October 1938 Carmarthen
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Mary Ann Finlay (div.) Ann Carlton
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Oxford

David John Denzil Davies (born 9 October 1938) is a former British politician. He served for 35 years as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Llanelli for the Labour Party from 1970 to 2005, and is a member of the Privy Council.

Early life

Davies was born in Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthenshire. He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys in Carmarthen, and then Pembroke College, Oxford, where he graduated with a First Class Honours BA in Law and Gray's Inn where he qualified as a barrister. He lectured in Law at Chicago University in 1963 and the University of Leeds from 1964. He practised at the tax bar between 1967 and 1975. Later he also practised in the field of personal injuries and served as a head of chambers.

Parliamentary career

Davies as a Treasury Minister in James Callaghan's Government. He was seen as a Eurosceptic, and he opposed the National Assembly for Wales.

Davies served in a number of posts when Labour formed the Official Opposition after the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, including Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in Michael Foot's Shadow Cabinet and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in Neil Kinnock's. Like his predecessor as Shadow Defence Secretary, John Silkin, he resigned from the front bench in June 1988 in protest at Neil Kinnock's management style. The trigger for his resignation was Kinnock's announcement, without reference to Davies or the Shadow Cabinet, of a change in Labour's defence policy, from unilateral nuclear disarmament to multilateral nuclear disarmament and then back to unilateral nuclear disarmament, over a period of three days. He made an unsuccessful bid for the Labour Party deputy leadership in 1983.

He was one of the few Labour MPs with ministerial experience remaining after the 1997 landslide that returning Labour to power after 18 years in opposition.

He stood down at the 2005 general election, and was replaced by Nia Griffith.

Personal life

He married Mary Ann Finlay in 1963. They have a son and daughter. They divorced in 1988. Married Ann Carlton in 1989.

Publications

Booth: Residence and Domicile in U.K. Taxation (successive editions) Maximise Damages, Minimise Taxes (1993) World Trade Organisation and GATT '94 The Galilean and the Goose - How Christianity converted the Roman Empire (2010 ISBN 978-0-9566489-0-7)

External links

• BBC profile (outdated)
• They Work for You
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Denzil Davies

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Jim Griffiths	Member of Parliament for Llanelli 1970–2005	Succeeded by Nia Griffith