Profiling the Secretary of State for Wales

• Sir Robert Buckland MP for South Swindon since 2010, retains his role as Secretary of State for Wales
• Sir Robert has previously held the roles of Lord Chancellor and Secretary State for Justice, he was first made Wales Secretary after the reshuffle in July 2022. He first supported Rishi Sunak for the leadership of the Conservative party before switching allegiances to Liz Truss in August.
• He has had good engagement with the CLA so far in his role, participating in a CLA roundtable at the Royal Welsh Show, and we look forward to working with him even more closely.

Sir Robert was born and bred in Wales coming from Llanelli, and spent his working life practicing as a solicitor in South Wales and was a councillor in Carmarthenshire prior to be selected as the candidate for South Swindon. He has stated so far in the role that he wants there to be a good working relationship between Westminster and the First Minister Mark Drakeford, stating that they have a large number of “common interests” and they need to work together for the benefit of Wales.

He has in past praised the amount of devolution that has taken place and stated that it’s right that the Senedd has primacy for Welsh issues, but the focus should be placed on delivering for the people of Wales.

He has unsurprisingly come out against the idea of Welsh independence, declaring that it would be a severe separation and that would be a great loss to both England and Wales to be untied.

While not necessarily relevant to the CLA areas of interest while discussing Sir Robert it would be remiss to not reference his role in the justice system. Having first being made Solicitor General in 2014, Prisons Minister in 2019, and then subsequently Secretary of State for Justice in the same year until 2021.

Sir Robert has made few comments during his time in Government on agriculture and the rural economy both due to the nature of his constituency in South Swindon, and consistently holding Government positions which prevent speeches in other policy areas. In the few statements he has made he has praised the highly quality of Welsh produce, and that there should a strong focus on protecting the environment.