Cynon Valley has returned Labour candidates to Westminster since 1922. In 1997, Ann Clwyd secured nearly 70% of the vote. Despite some recent in-roads by Plaid Cymru by the 2001 Westminster election Labour resumed its dominance with a majority of almost 50%. And at the assembly election of 2003, the nationalist vote plummeted by more than 20 per cent, and Labour returned to form securing 65% of the vote. The MP Ann Clwyd is one of the few left-wing Labour MPs to have supported the war in Iraq - and is now Tony Blair's human rights envoy to Iraq. Her emotional speech on the 18 March 2003 is widely regarded as a speech which persuaded many undecided MPs to vote with the Government and sanction war on Iraq. Cynon Valley is typified by tightly-packed rows of terraced houses and buildings clinging to steep hillsides. There are high levels of unemployment and social deprivation in this typical valleys community based around such towns as Aberdare, Mountain Ash and Abercynon. Cynon Valley is a former mining area and is home to the last deep mine in Wales, worker-owned Tower colliery.
