83:. It was one of only two Labour gains throughout the whole of Great Britain in that general election which saw Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives sweep to power at Westminster. He continued to represent the constituency until his resignation in 1987, having successfully fought off a powerful challenge from the Conservatives in the person of Nigel Thomas in the June 1983 general election. A member of the Fabian Society, he was appointed a member of the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs in 1979 and he was also opposition spokesman on Welsh Affairs.
61:. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1948 just as the National Health Service was beginning. He served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps (national service), 1949–52, a period during which he saw service in west Africa. He returned to south Wales to practise as a family doctor in the Cross Hands area between Port Talbot and Carmarthen in 1952, serving the local community there for more than forty years.
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Thomas duly retired from
Parliament at the dissolution in 1987. He was married, 1958, to Margaret Indeg Thomas, the daughter of a minister with the Welsh Independents. They had one son and one daughter. They lived at Ffynnon Wen, Capel Hendre, Ammanford. Roger Thomas died on 4 September 1994 and was
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He was one of the few Labour MPs to represent a predominantly rural area and concentrated on agriculture and EEC issues. Although mildly supportive of devolution, Thomas was opposed to what he regarded as the excesses of Welsh nationalism. In 1980 he complained about a perceived bias towards Plaid
49:, on 14 November 1925, the son of Evan J. Thomas, a coalminer who later became a baker, and Beryl Thomas. The family was Welsh-speaking and left-wing. Thomas inherited a fierce anti-Conservative standpoint which remained with him throughout his life. He received his education at
125:, contesting the Conwy Constituency. In the 1985 selection, he acquired the majority of branch nominations in the Constituency, largely from the eastern, industrialised areas of the Constituency. His was a controversial nomination given that he was a Political Assistant to
129:, General Secretary of the Electricians' Trade Union, which was at odds with the majority of trade union views on the major industrial disputes at that time. Walters, despite being the favourite to gain the nomination, lost to the local Trinity College lecturer,
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deflected some attention. Thomas was pressed to stay on by the Labour whips, who feared the loss of the marginal seat in a by-election. On 17 August he announced he would remain until the dissolution of
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94:, of importuning for immoral purposes at a men's public lavatory (he was fined £75). The case was reported and attracted negative publicity for Thomas, who announced to Carmarthen
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The selection of a new Labour
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Cymru in Welsh-language television programmes, a complaint that was not upheld.
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Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (1980).
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