Paul Davies: meet the former mineworker who's become Colne Valley MP at the age of 66

Yet despite coming from a trade union background - he was a representative of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Wales - politics almost passed him by.

In fact, it was his diagnosis with colon cancer a few years ago that started his path to the green benches of the House of Commons at the age when many MPs are thinking about retirement. 

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post at the Labour Party conference alongside his wife Leah, Paul admits that he has a “slightly different background to quite a few of the MPs”. 

He left school at 16 and worked in the Welsh valleys as a coalface electrician, and this led him to joining the NUM.

It was through his union involvement that he ended up studying at Ruskin College in Oxford, a higher education institution for adults with few qualifications. 

Paul says this “changed his life completely”, and led to him studying at Cardiff University and then working in HR for two global companies.

After a long career in the private sector, Paul wanted to give back so trained to become a school teacher, but after two years in education he was diagnosed with colon cancer. 

Thankfully no he’s fully recovered, but that break gave him the opportunity to think about his next move - and after a conversation with Leah he decided to become a councillor in Kirklees.

“Would I have done that if I carried on as a primary school teacher, it’s hard to know - but that’s the way life is,” he says. 

“Certainly I’ve always wanted to be in a role where I can help individuals and help communities when I left the private sector.”

Since being elected as an MP in June, Paul says his life hasn’t changed too much. He still spends time in pubs and coffee shops in Holmfirth. 

He’s pleased that he’s taken an unconventional route into politics: “I could use that background and experience to really make a difference for people, to be blunt much more than I could have done when I was 29 or 30.”