Sir Robert Buckland has been announced as the new Welsh secretary, replacing Simon Hart who quit Boris Johnson's government. Mr Hart said there was "no other option left".
Sir Robert James Buckland was born in Llanelli in 1968. He became a barrister and after living in England returned to Wales to practice working in criminal law in the courts in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. He has been a member of Apex Chambers in Cardiff. He unsuccessfully stood for election for the Conservatives and European and general elections several times before being elected as the Tory MP in South Swindon in 2010 at the second attempt.
He has previously served as Lord Chancellor and Solicitor General. He is married to Sian and has two children Millicent and George and lives in Wroughton, Wiltshire.
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He is the first MP to live outside of Wales to serve as Welsh secretary since Cheryl Gillan MP, who represented the seat of Chesham and Amersham and served in David Cameron's first cabinet.
He has previously been solicitor general and minister of state for prisons. He was appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor by Boris Johnson in July 2019, serving until the cabinet reshuffle in September 2021 when he was sacked by Boris Johnson. He tweeted at the time: "It has been an honour to serve in Government for the last 7 years, and as the Lord Chancellor for the last 2. I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure."
His background:
Robert Buckland stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Elli Ward on Dyfed County Council in May 1993, winning the seat from Labour with a majority of just three votes where it was reported that he was the first Conservative "in living memory" to have been elected in the Llanelli area. When there was the council reorgnisation, Elli became part of Carmarthenshire County Council and he lost.
In 1994, he stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour European Parliament seat of South Wales West. The following year he stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Islwyn in the by-election caused by the appointment of the sitting MP Neil Kinnock as a European Commissioner. He went on to stand unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party as their candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire at the 1997 general election. He was on the Conservative Party list of candidates for Wales at the 1999 European elections, but was again unsuccessful.
In 2005, he was selected as the Conservative Party's prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Swindon, replacing former MP Simon Coombs who had represented Swindon between 1983 and 1997, and had unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2001. At the 2005 general election, Buckland lost to Labour candidate Anne Snelgrove, who polled 17,534 votes to his 16,181, a narrow majority of 1,353 votes.
He was given a knighthood in the New Year's Honours in 2022 for public and political service.
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