Education
She attended Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School on Afan Valley Road in Cimla, Neath.
She attended Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School on Afan Valley Road in Cimla, Neath.
James married at age 16 and had two children by age 20. During the 1984 Miners" Strike, James helped feed over 1,000 families a week from nine different centres. After the strike, James decided to take her A-Levels, before attending Swansea University.
Jessica Gunning portrays a young Siân James during the time of the miners" strike in the 2014 film Pride.
After graduation, she worked for a series of organisations, with her final role before entering Parliament as Director of Welsh Women"s Aid. As a young mother, James became involved in the family support networks surrounding the 1984 Miners’ Strike, that were working to safeguard South Wales communities and the way of life.
After the end of the strike, she became involved in women"s rights campaigns. After being elected to Parliament, James was Parliamentary Private Secretary both to Gareth Thomas, the Minister of State for Trade, and to Paul Murphy, the Welsh secretary until resigning in March 2009.
She cited overwork as the cause of her resignation but it also allowed her to sign the early day motion opposing the part privatisation of the Royal Mail.
Westminster
In 2004 she resigned from the role in Welsh Women"s Aid to stand as the Labour Party candidate in Swansea East. She was elected in May 2005 with a majority of 11,249 votes, the first woman to represent Swansea East and one of only eight women MPs from Wales. On 25 February 2014, James announced her intention to stand down at the 2015 United Kingdom General Election.
On 26 September 2014, James was one of 25 Labour MPs who broke party discipline to vote against renewed air strikes in Iraq.
54th United Kingdom Parliament. 55th United Kingdom Parliament]
She was heavily involved with the students’ union and an enthusiastic member of the women's group.