David Hywel Francis[1] (6 June 1946 – 14 February 2021) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberavon from 2001 to 2015.

He was made vice-president of Carers UK and honorary parliamentary patron of the adult learners' body, NIACE.

[citation needed] He was the son of Dai Francis, who led the South Wales NUM during the industrial unrest of the 1970s.

[15] He voted against only allowing people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for an identifying birthmark if it is in connection with a terrorism investigation.

[18] In June 2003, he voted against a motion that would have recalled the Prime Minister's assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that could be used at 45 minutes' notice, and against launching an independent inquiry into the intelligence received and the decisions that were based on it.

[19] In June 2007, he voted against a motion calling for an independent inquiry by a committee of privy counsellors into the Iraq War.

The cable by a US embassy political officer dated from 2008 and discussed the upcoming Welsh Labour leadership election to choose a successor to the retiring Rhodri Morgan.

Francis was quoted as claiming that all of the prospective candidates who were already members of the Welsh Assembly were seen as flawed by the Welsh Labour Party and suggesting that many in the party were hoping for a "white knight" to be "parachute[d] in" from outside the Assembly.

However, Francis claimed that he could not recall the conversation, suggesting that "it sounds as if the diplomat suffers from poor shorthand" and stating that "it is on the record that I was an early supporter of [Assembly Member and successful leadership candidate] Carwyn Jones [...] I would certainly not have supported such an absurd suggestion as parachuting anyone into the assembly".