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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Davies to contest assembly seat | Davies to contest assembly seat |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Former Labour Welsh Secretary Ron Davies has confirmed he will stand as an independent for the Welsh assembly. | Former Labour Welsh Secretary Ron Davies has confirmed he will stand as an independent for the Welsh assembly. |
| Mr Davies will contest Caerphilly, his constituency as a Labour MP, when he was regarded a pioneer of devolution. | Mr Davies will contest Caerphilly, his constituency as a Labour MP, when he was regarded a pioneer of devolution. |
| Mr Davies' political career faltered after a 1998 incident with a man on Clapham Common which the former MP described as a "moment of madness". | Mr Davies' political career faltered after a 1998 incident with a man on Clapham Common which the former MP described as a "moment of madness". |
| He did not stand in the 2003 assembly elections after renewed newspaper allegations about his private life. | He did not stand in the 2003 assembly elections after renewed newspaper allegations about his private life. |
| Mr Davies said he was decided to stand because he had "received every encouragement" from people he had spoken to in the Caerphilly constituency. | |
| He said that in addition to campaigns on "bread and butter" issues, he wanted to ensure the Welsh assembly had a "slightly different perspective". | |
| Speaking on BBC Wales' Good Morning Wales programme, Mr Davies said although he was standing as an independent, he was still "very much a member of Forward Wales" - the new independent party of the left. | |
| The reason he was not standing under the Forward Wales banner, he explained, was because of the "party political pantomime down in Cardiff Bay at the moment" and the changes to the assembly electoral system introduced last year. | |
| "The electoral system has been rigged," he added. "The Labour Party last year introduced changes which will make it very difficult for the small parties to get a foot in. | |
| "I will make my politics quite clear. I was a member of the Labour Party for the best part of 40 years. | |
| "I still believe very much in those left-of-centre principles I believed in then. The Labour Party has shredded everything it's ever believed in." |