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Byron Davies, Baron Davies of Gower

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Davies of Gower
Official portrait, 2019
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
In office
8 July 2024 – 5 November 2024
LeaderRishi Sunak
Preceded byJo Stevens
Succeeded byMims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Maritime and Security
In office
14 November 2023 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byThe Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Succeeded byMike Kane
Lord-in-Waiting
Government Whip
In office
22 September 2022 – 14 November 2023
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Rishi Sunak[1]
Succeeded byThe Lord Gascoigne
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 October 2019
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Gower
In office
7 May 2015 – 3 May 2017
Preceded byMartin Caton
Succeeded byTonia Antoniazzi
Member of the Welsh Assembly
for South Wales West
In office
6 May 2011 – 15 May 2015[2]
Preceded byDavid Lloyd
Succeeded byAltaf Hussain
Personal details
Born (1952-09-04) 4 September 1952 (age 72)
Swansea, Wales
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of West London

Henry Byron Davies, Baron Davies of Gower (born 4 September 1952), is a Welsh Conservative politician, Life Peer and former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector.

President of the Welsh Conservative Party since 2020, Lord Davies served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales from July to November 2024. He was a Member of the Welsh Assembly for South Wales West from 2011 to 2015, and Member of Parliament for Gower from 2015 to 2017, before being elevated to the peerage in 2019.

Lord Davies currently serves as an Opposition spokesman for Home affairs in the House of Lords, since 11 November 2024.[3]

Early life and career

[edit]

Born in 1952[4] at Port Eynon on the Gower Peninsula,[5] Byron Davies was educated at Knelston County Primary School and Gowerton School, then an all-boys grammar school.[4] He later read law at the University of West London, graduating LLB.[6]

From 1971 to 2003, he served as a career detective in the Metropolitan Police.[4] Seconded to the National Crime Squad to specialise in combating organised crime, Davies was posted to Eastern Europe, on behalf of the European Union, where he was also tasked with helping to prepare EU candidate countries for accession.[7][8] Promoted detective chief inspector, Davies retired from the police force to become a consultant advising foreign governments on organised crime.[9][10]

Political career

[edit]

Unsuccessfully contesting Gower as the Conservative candidate at both the Welsh Assembly Election 2007 and the 2010 general election, Davies was elected to the National Assembly for Wales representing South Wales West in 2011.[11] Returned as Member of Parliament for Gower at the 2015 general election, having vanquished the 109-year Labour stronghold of Gower Constituency for the Conservatives,[12] on 9 May 2015 (three days after the Westminster election), Davies decided to step down as an Assembly Member to focus on his parliamentary duties for Gower.

Davies opposed Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum[13] and lost his seat at the 2017 general election.

Created a Life Peer in 2019, Lord Davies served under PM Rishi Sunak in the Wales Office, as a Government Whip and latterly as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Transport.[10]

Post-Commons career

[edit]

From September 2017 to September 2020, Davies served as Chairman of the Welsh Conservatives succeeding the former MP and MEP Jonathan Evans.[14]

House of Lords

[edit]

Davies was nominated for a life peerage in Theresa May's resignation honours list on 10 September 2019.[15] He was created Baron Davies of Gower, of Gower in the County of Swansea, on 10 October 2019.[16] Lord Davies served as a Government Whip under both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2023 before, in November 2023, being appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport in which position he served until the end of Sunak's administration.

Shadow Secretary of State for Wales

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Following the 2024 general election when no Conservative MPs were elected in Wales, Lord Davies was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in the Shadow Cabinet of Rishi Sunak; this marks the first time that the position was held by a member of the House of Lords.[17][18]

In an op-ed, Lord Davies said that his number one task in the role would be to ensure the Welsh Conservatives are “fully prepared for our much-anticipated comeback over the coming months and years.” [19]

Following an exercise involving engaging public opinion as to whether the Welsh Conservatives should support the abolition of devolution, Lord Davies criticised the Senedd Conservative Group leader Andrew RT Davies, saying: “On the issue of abolishing the Senedd, the Conservative Party has no plans to support a move towards this and I see any action to test public opinion on this as completely futile.” [20]

Personal life

[edit]

One of the main reasons for his electoral defeat in 2017, Davies claimed, was a member of the public claiming in online platforms that he was “being investigated for electoral fraud”. The claim was false and Davies successfully sued.[12]

In 1978, he married Gillian Adderley, having one son.

Lord and Lady Davies live in Ceredigion, Wales.

Honours

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Ribbon Details Year awarded
Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal

2002

Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal 2001

References

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  1. ^ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Byron Davies AM". National Assembly for Wales. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  3. ^ www.parliament.uk
  4. ^ a b c "Davies of Gower, Baron, (Henry Byron Davies) (born 4 Sept. 1952)". Who's Who 2023. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  5. ^ Wales Online. "Who are the candidates standing in Gower in the General Election 2017?". Wales Online. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Davies of Gower, Baron, (Henry Byron Davies) (born 4 Sept. 1952)." WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 1 Dec. 2011
  7. ^ "Lord Davies of Gower". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  8. ^ Blake, Aled (6 May 2011). "Assembly election: Meet the incoming AMs". WalesOnline website. Media Wales Ltd. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  9. ^ Youle, Richard (17 October 2019). "Gower's new peer is about to take his seat in the House of Lords". Wales Online. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  10. ^ a b https://www.gov.uk/government/people/lord-davies-of-gower
  11. ^ "Wales elections > South Wales West". BBC News. BBC. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  12. ^ a b https://conservativehome.com/2018/04/27/byron-davies-how-i-won-an-apology-from-a-corbyn-supporter-for-falsehoods-that-helped-cost-me-my-seat/
  13. ^ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  14. ^ "Byron Davies elected Welsh Tory chair". 4 September 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  15. ^ "Resignation Honours 2019". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  16. ^ "No. 62798". The London Gazette. 16 October 2019. p. 18552.
  17. ^ "UK politics live: Lord Cameron resigns as Rishi Sunak announces interim shadow cabinet". BBC News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  18. ^ Mosalski, Ruth (9 July 2024). "The new shadow secretary for Wales has been announced". Wales Online. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  19. ^ https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/the-general-election-heartbreaking-conservative-29579566
  20. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjwd033n0ko

Offices held

[edit]
Senedd
Preceded by Member of the National Assembly
for South Wales West
2011–2015 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Gower
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
2024 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Davies of Gower 		Followed by
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