Allan Rogers, the former Labour MP for Rhondda who has died aged 91, had, through the circumstances of his childhood, a passionate understanding of the difficult lives of many of his constituents in the valleys of south Wales.
The youngest of 12 children of a disabled former miner who was unable to find work for over a decade after he was injured in a colliery accident, Rogers sought ways to improve the prospects for those he represented throughout his life – first as a councillor in local government, then as a member of the European parliament for five years and subsequently, from 1983 until 2001, in the House of Commons.
