Richard Kelley

Richard Kelley (24 July 1904 – April 1984) was a British trade unionist and left-wing Labour Party politician from the coal mining area of Doncaster. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1959 to 1979.

Kelley was a miners' union secretary in Doncaster for 10 years, where he joined with National Coal Board managers in opposition to miners who wanted to leave work early when their work was complete, fearing that it could lead to miners hurrying their work and ignoring safety precautions. He also served as a councillor on the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council from 1949 to 1959.

At the time of his candidacy for Parliament, the NUM's leadership in Yorkshire tried to prevent left-wingers from becoming sponsored miners' MPs and most MPs in NUM-dominated seats were on the right of the Labour Party. Richard Kelley was able to secure election because the collieries in the Don Valley were considerably more militant than in the rest of Yorkshire and built an independent power base around his candidacy.

He was elected at the 1959 general election as the MP for Don Valley, and held the seat at five further general elections until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1979 general election. Kelley was sponsored by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and was one of the MPs affected by a decision in 1977 of the Yorkshire area of the NUM to seek the retirement at age 65 of all MPs sponsored by mining unions.

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