Law served as a councillor for Nantyglo and Blaenau Urban District Council between 1970 and 1974. He continued to serve as a councillor on Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council until 1999 and was appointed mayor for 1988-1989.[1]
2005 general election
Law left the Labour Party in protest at the use of an all-woman shortlist in selecting the candidate for the general election, which was used to replace the retiring Llew Smith. Law believed all-woman shortlists were being selectively imposed on local parties only where a leadership-supported male candidate was unlikely to be selected, citing the example of Ed Balls and Pat McFadden as new leadership-supported male candidates, and noting that use of all-woman shortlists had been stopped in Scotland.
Smith had enjoyed a majority of 19,313, making it the safest parliamentary seat in Wales. Prior to the announcement of Law's rumoured candidacy, his Labour opponent Maggie Jones stated that Law would be "very foolish" to stand against her. She argued "Blaenau Gwent is solidly Labour and I don't think people will vote for anyone else."[6]
Law won the seat with 58.2% of the vote, defeating Labour candidate Maggie Jones, and gaining a majority of 9,121 votes. He campaigned while recovering from surgery for a brain tumour.[7] Law initially withdrew from the election on 4 April upon receiving the news of his tumour, but he was persuaded to continue standing, receiving treatment throughout the campaign.[8][2]
Shortly after his victory, Law highlighted his former party's failure to acknowledge the problems with the use of all-women short-lists, stating: "What I find very strange is that even after the result in Blaenau Gwent, there is no one in the party [Labour] who is prepared to admit that they were wrong." Law noted Prime Minister Tony Blair's initial misgivings about the shortlist and how this contrasted with the views of his wife Cherie Blair, questioning whether she had excessive influence over the party's national leader.[9]
Law's independent position had a particularly significant impact in the Welsh Assembly, as it meant that Labour lost its majority. As a result, the party suffered a number of defeats by combined opposition parties who, when they agreed to do so, were able to vote down Labour policies.[7]
Law was the third Welsh MP or AM to win a constituency as both a party candidate and an independent, following S. O. Davies, the MP for Merthyr Tydfil from 1934 until his death in 1972, who was deselected by the local Labour Party on grounds of age prior to the 1970 general election, but ran against the official candidate as an independent and won; and John Marek, who remained AM for Wrexham, later forming his own party, Forward Wales.[7]
