Huw Irranca-Davies

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Huw Irranca-Davies MP
Member of Parliament
for Ogmore
Incumbent
Assumed office 
14 February 2002
Preceded by Raymond Powell
Born 22 January 1963 (1963-01-22) (age 45)
Swansea
Nationality British
Political party Labour

Huw Irranca-Davies, formerly Ifor Huw Davies, (born 22 January 1963, in Swansea) is a British Labour politician from Wales. He has been Member of Parliament for Ogmore since 2002. He adopted his wife's maiden name as part of his own surname when they married.

After the death later in 2001 of Sir Ray Powell, Irranca-Davies was chosen to defend his Ogmore seat. At the byelection held on February 14, 2002 he won the seat comfortably.

Having served as Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Northern Ireland Office, the Department of Work and Pensions, and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, he became an Assistant Whip in May 2006. On June 29, 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales [1]

He had previously been the Labour candidate for the Brecon & Radnor constituency in 2001, but finished third, behind both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates.

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[edit] Early Days

Huw was born in 1963 into a strong and close working class Labour family, headed by his mother Teresa Davies and father Gethin Davies. Some of his earliest memories are of campaigning in General Elections for his uncle Ifor Davies, who was the highly-respected MP for Gower, and deputy to Cledwyn Hughes at the Welsh Office in Harold Wilson's Government.He went to Gowerton Comprehensive School (where his mother was a secretary), and later achieved a BA (Hons) at Crewe and Alsager College, and an MSc from the University of Wales, Swansea Institute. Huw didn’t start with the name Irranca-Davies, but was just plain old Davies. When he married however his wife’s name was added. His wife Joanna – who he met while he was working in a sports centre and she was doing aerobics - was born into the Irranca family, a hard-working familiy of Italian stock who came to Wales in the 1950s and worked hard to make a successful living in the South Wales valleys.

After leaving Higher Education, Huw worked for local authorities in leisure management. Later, he worked in private sector management, and also spent enjoyable years as a lecturer at Swansea Institute of Higher Education.


[edit] Life as an MP

He was elected to the parliamentary seat of Ogmore in the South Wales Valleys (a Labour seat since 1918) in the by-election of February 14th 2002, after the death of the veteran MP and Government Whip Sir Ray Powell. Curiously, Huw was also himself appointed as the Government Whip for Wales in May 2006 after spells as a Parliamentary Aide in several key government departments.

He was re-elected to serve Ogmore in the general election of May 2005. Since his election in 2002 Huw has been working hard at Westminster on a range of local and national issues. He has sat 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, amongst others.

He sits on the Welsh Grand Committee and the Northern Ireland Grand Committee. In addition Huw 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.


During his time at the House of Commons Huw has made the most of opportunities to speak in the Chamber, enabling him to bring attention to many pressing issues. These have included topics as varied as international trade union rights, compulsory voting, anti-social behaviour, renewable energy, fair trade, and social justice.

Huw became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP in June 2005, having previously served as PPS to the Rt. Hon. Jane Kennedy MP at the Northern Ireland Office and also at the Department for Work and Pensions.


[edit] Offices Held

In the May 2006 Government reshuffle he was promoted to the Government and served as an Assistant Government Whip until Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

On June 29 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales [2] in Gordon Brown's new Government.


[edit] Trivia

In 2005 he was voted the 48th sexiest man in Wales by the Western Mail. http://thewesternmail.icwales.co.uk/top50/top50.cfm?what=Men


[edit] External links

[edit] Offices Held

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Raymond Powell		 Member of Parliament for Ogmore
2002 – present		 Incumbent
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