Emrys Hughes

For the rugby league footballer of the 1930s for Wales, and Huddersfield, see Emrys Hughes (rugby).

Emrys Hughes (10 July 1894 – 18 October 1969) was a Welsh Labour politician, best known for being the biographer and son-in-law of Keir Hardie, the Scottish Labour politician.

Hughes was born in Tonypandy, Wales, the son of the Reverend J. R. Hughes. He was educated at Abercynon Council School, Mountain Ash Secondary School and City of Leeds Training College, and became a teacher by profession. In the First World War he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector. In 1924, he married Nan Hardie, the daughter of Keir Hardie. He also became editor of the socialist journal Forward.

On 7 February 1946 Hughes stood in the South Ayrshire (Scotland) by-election, following the death of the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Alexander Sloan. He was elected as the constituency's Member of Parliament, and re-elected in the general elections of 1950, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964, and 1966. A left-winger, he was frequently at odds with the leadership of the Labour Party and twice had the whip withdrawn, between November 1954 and April 1955 (over German rearmament), and between March 1961 and May 1963 (over nuclear weapons).

On 14 July 1966 Gwynfor Evans (Plaid Cymru) won Carmarthen from Labour in a by-election. As a fellow pacifist and member of the Peace Pledge Union, he was shown around the House of Commons by Emrys Hughes; on pointing out the Welsh table in the Commons' tea room, Hughes warned him, "You’d better not sit down there, your name’s mud among that lot." [1]

Selected works

• Winston Churchill. British Bulldog: His Career in War and Peace, Exposition Books, 1955. ASIN:B0006ATSO8 (first published in 1950)
• Keir Hardie, Allen & Unwin, 1956. ASIN:B0006DBKFK
• Emrys Hughes, M.P. on POLARIS and the ARMS RACE, Housmans, 1961. ASIN:B003Z94NXI
• MacMillan : Portrait of a Politician, Allen & Unwin, 1962. ISBN 9780049230132
• Sydney Silverman - Rebel in Parliament, C Skilton, 1969. ASIN:B001KIB9T2

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alexander Sloan	Member of Parliament for South Ayrshire 1946–1969	Succeeded by Jim Sillars