Huw Irranca-Davies

Huw Irranca-Davies
AM
Member of the Welsh Assembly
for Ogmore
Assumed office
6 May 2016
Preceded by Janice Gregory
Member of Parliament
for Ogmore
In office
14 February 2002 – 24 March 2016
Preceded by Ray Powell
Succeeded by Chris Elmore
Personal details
Born Ifor Huw Davies
(1963-01-22) 22 January 1963
Gowerton, Swansea, Wales
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Joanna Irranca (known as Joanna Irranca-Davies
Relations Ifor Davies (Uncle)
Children 3
Occupation Politician
Religion Roman Catholicism[1]
Website www.huwirranca-davies.org.uk

Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies[2] (born 22 January 1963), born Ifor Huw Davies, is a Welsh Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ogmore from 2002 to 2016. He adopted his wife's maiden name as part of his own surname after they wed.

Having served as Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Northern Ireland Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, he became an Assistant Whip in May 2006. On 29 June 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, before being promoted to the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Irranca-Davies resigned his seat in parliament in March 2016 to stand to represent the constituency in the Welsh Assembly, winning the seat in the elections held in May 2016.[3][4]

Early days

Ifor Huw Davies was born in 1963 to Teresa and Gethin Davies. He campaigned as a boy in general elections for his uncle, Ifor Davies, MP for Gower and deputy to Cledwyn Hughes at the Welsh Office during Harold Wilson's government. He attended Gowerton Comprehensive School (where his mother was a secretary), and later earned a BA (Hons) at Crewe and Alsager College, and an MSc from Swansea Metropolitan University.[5]

After leaving higher education he worked for local authorities in leisure management; and it was while he was working in a sports centre and she was doing aerobics that he met his wife, Joanna Irranca, born to Italian parents who had come to work in south Wales in the 1950s. On marriage the couple both changed their surnames to Irranca-Davies.[5]

Later, he worked in private sector management, as a lecturer at Swansea Metropolitan University.

Member of Parliament

In 2001, Irranca-Davies was Labour candidate for the Brecon & Radnor constituency, but finished third, behind the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates. In the by-election of 14 February 2002 he was elected to the parliamentary seat of Ogmore in the South Wales Valleys (a Labour seat since 1918), after the death of MP and Government Whip Sir Ray Powell. (Irranca-Davies was himself appointed Government Whip for Wales in May 2006 after spells as a Parliamentary Aide in several government departments.) He was re-elected to serve Ogmore in the general elections of May 2005 and May 2010. For the first time in 2010, Ogmore became the largest parliamentary majority of any party and constituency in Wales.

Since his election in 2002 Irranca-Davies has worked on a range of local and national issues, including sitting on the Procedures Select Committee to discuss ways of modernising the work of Parliament and has also sat on Standing Committees for the Police Reform Bill, Fireworks Bill and Communications Bill, among others. He has also held positions on the Welsh Grand Committee and the Northern Ireland Grand Committee. He has worked on Parliamentary Labour Party ('PLP') Committees on Welsh Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Home Affairs and International Development. He was also the backbench MP representative on the board of the Coal Health Claims Monitoring Subgroup for Wales. He has campaigned on many issues including the modernisation of rail lines in Wales, flood protection, and access to the countryside and coast.

Irranca-Davies has spoken in the House of Commons on topics as varied as international trade union rights, compulsory voting, anti-social behaviour, renewable energy and climate change, fair trade, social justice and poverty and inequality. In June 2005 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Tessa Jowell, having previously served as PPS to Jane Kennedy at the Northern Ireland Office. He served as PPS to Ministers of the Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He has also worked as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of Wales, and as an Environment Minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Between October 2010 and October 2011, he served as the Shadow Energy Minister where he led the Labour campaign on the protection of the Feed-In Tariff for solar power. In October 2011, he was appointed as the Shadow Minister on Food and Farming, where he currently works on issues regarding food policy, farming and rural affairs (including extending the availability of broadband).

He belongs to a diverse range of All Party Groups within Parliament, including the All Party Groups for British Council (Vice-Chair), China Group, Citizens Advice, Clean Coal, Coalfield Communities, Energy Intensive Industries (Vice-Chair), Manufacturing, Maritime and Ports, Steel and Metal Related Industry, Children in Wales, Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Social Care (Co-Chair), University Group (Vice-Chair), and Waterways (Co-Chair). He serves as Chair of the All Party Group for the Recognition of Munitions Workers which aims "work with the government to find a means of recognising those munitions workers who served during the first and second world wars"[6]

On 19 June 2015, Irranca-Davies was elected to the chairmanship of the Environmental Audit Select Committee.[7] He was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.[8] His last day as M.P. was on 24 March 2016.[9]

National Assembly for Wales

In October 2015, Irranca-Davies announced his wish to transition from Westminster to Cardiff Bay. In December 2015, he was selected to contest the Ogmore seat for Welsh Labour Party at the forthcoming National Assembly elections scheduled for 5 May 2016.[10] Irranca-Davies won the Assembly seat, while the vacated Westminster seat was also won by Labour's Chris Elmore.[4][11]

Personal life

Irranca-Davies is married and has three sons.[5]

Westminster Parliamentary Offices held

National Assembly Offices held

Awards

In 2005 he was voted the sexiest man in Wales by the Western Mail.[13]

In 2011, Irranca-Davies was shortlisted for the first Sports Parliamentarian of the Year award, an initiative introduced by the Sport and Recreation Alliance for the work he has done to promote archery. He was nominated by the Archery GB after he hosted the first sporting event to ever take place in Parliament in September 2011.[14]

The event brought MPs and peers together as well as gold medallists such as Nicky Hunt on Speakers' Green for a day devoted to the sport.[15]

In February 2013 Irranca-Davies was named Total Politics MP of the Month. He won the award for his work in standing up for farmers and consumers in the Ogmore constituency and across the nation by persuading the government to u-turn on the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) Bill.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Ceridwen Lee (27 August 2015). "Fall in number of Catholic MPs in the House of Commons ahead of landmark debate on assisted dying". The Tablet. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 59418. p. 8746. 13 May 2010.
  3. ↑ "Labour MP quits Commons to run for seat in Cardiff Bay". BBC News. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Welsh Election 2016: Labour just short as UKIP wins seats". BBC News. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 "About Huw". huwirranca-davies.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Recognition of Munitions Workers". All Party Groups. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "Winning candidates for select committee Chairs announced". UK Parliament. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  8. ↑ Gartside, Ben (15 June 2015). "Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "Huw Irranca-Davies resigns as MP for Ogmore". Parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Shipton, Martin (6 December 2015). "Huw Irranca-Davies selected as Labour Assembly candidate for Ogmore". Wales Online. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "Labour holds Ogmore in by-election with 52% of the vote". BBC News. 10 May 2016.
  12. ↑ http://senedd.assembly.wales/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=434
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 October 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  14. ↑ Jones, Peter. "Archery's Parliamentary champion Huw in line for an award". Archery GB. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Archery becomes first sport to be played at Houses of Parliament". Bbc.co.uk. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  16. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 February 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Raymond Powell		 Member of Parliament for Ogmore
2002–2016 		Succeeded by
Chris Elmore
National Assembly for Wales
Preceded by
Janice Gregory		 Assembly Member for Ogmore
2016 – present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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