Buckland takes over reins as new Welsh Secretary
SIR Robert Buckland has been announced as the new Welsh Secretary, replacing Simon Hart who quit Boris Johnson’s government saying there was “no other option left”.
Sir Robert was born in Llanelli in 1968. He became a barrister and after living in England returned to Wales to practise, 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 in 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.
He is the first MP to live outside of Wales to serve as Welsh Secretary since Cheryl Gillan, who represented the seat of Chesham and Amersham and served in David Cameron’s first cabinet.
Sir Robert has also previously been Minister of State for Prisons and was appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor by Boris Johnson in July 2019, serving until the cabinet reshuffle in September last year when he was sacked by Boris Johnson.
He tweeted at the time: “It has been an honour to serve in Government for the last seven years, and as the Lord Chancellor for the last two. I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure.”
He 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. 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 reorganisation, Elli became part of Carmarthenshire County Council and he lost the seat.
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 and 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 but at the 2005 general election he lost to Labour candidate Anne Snelgrove, who polled 17,534 votes to his 16,181, a narrow majority of 1,353 votes.