Cledwyn Hughes, MP for Anglesey - and St Helena

Constantine, Stephen (2015) Cledwyn Hughes, MP for Anglesey - and St Helena. Welsh History Review, 27 (3). pp. 553-573.

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Abstract

In 1958 Cledwyn Hughes, MP for Anglesey, spent a month in the British colony of St Helena in the south Atlantic at the request of the Labour Party leadership and in response to an invitation from an English resident complaining about deplorable living standards on the island and its undemocratic form of colonial government. The values implicit in Hughes’s highly critical report were derived from his Welsh cultural inheritance and political ideals; on his return he became, in effect, the MP for St Helena. His visit prompted the formation of the island’s first trade union, and its activities, his vigorous lobbying, and an official investigation he helped make necessary led to constitutional reform and increases in financial aid to the colony and its people.