Denzil Davies

Rt Hon Denzil Davies
Member of Parliament for Llanelli
In office 18 June 1970 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Jim Griffiths
Succeeded by	Nia Griffith
Personal details
Born	9 October 1938 (1938-10-09) (age 73) 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 in Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthenshire) is a former British Treasury Minister . 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

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 practiced at the tax bar between 1967 and 1975. Later he also practiced 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 Neil 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 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 9780956648907)

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

Persondata
Name	Davies, Denzil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 October 1938
Place of birth	Carmarthen
Date of death
Place of death