2016-04-07



Alun Cairns: New Secretary of State for Wales

JUNIOR Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns has been announced as the Secretary of State for Wales, following Stephen Crabb’s promotion to the Department for Work and Pensions on Saturday (Mar 19).

Mr Cairns was elected as MP for the Vale of Glamorgan in the 2010 general election. However, prior to this, he was an Assembly Member for 11 years. During this time, he developed a reputation as a combative debater, with an interest in Special Educational Needs. On one occasion he forced a change of Assembly Policy after championing a local Special Needs case by exposing that WG guidance was against the law.

However, before his election as an MP he was almost deselected, following a verbal gaffe made during a live radio broadcast, when he described Italians as ‘greasy wops’. He immediately apologised, and prominent members of the Welsh Italian community supported him.

Mr Cairns’ upbringing appears to have been influential on his political choices. The son of a British Steel welder and a shop-keeper, Mr Cairns, in the words of his online biography, ‘first became aware of politics whilst growing up in a deprived community near Swansea.

“He saw that a close family member, who ran her own small grocery shop worked all hours possible for almost 50 years ended up worse off than many of our neighbours who hadn’t bothered working, in spite of being able to do so.

“He felt that it was wrong that people who were able to work could live off the state, yet others worked every hour for little reward. Naturally, he wants to see support for those who genuinely can’t work.”

A relatively recent Wales Office appointment (he was given the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales in July 2014) he will now assume responsibility for the Wales Bill, which has currently been put back until after the Assembly Elections.

Mr Cairns has specified that largescale infrastructure projects form a large part of his vision for Wales, and believes that he will be able to work as a ‘deal-maker’ in much the same way that Mr Crabb did before he soured the relationship with Welsh Labour whilst campaigning for the 2015 elections and by his unwillingness to listen to criticism of the Draft Wales Bill.

“This has been an extraordinary week for Wales with a city deal for Cardiff Capital Region, the doors being opened for a north Wales growth deal and negotiations for a Swansea Bay city deal,” Mr Cairns recently said

“The Severn Tolls announcement demonstrates that Wales is open for business and I am determined to keep this momentum going and deliver on these projects.”

The new Secretary of State has also said that he knows Carwyn Jones ‘particularly well’ and claimed that they were friends ‘on a personal level.’

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Cairns added that ‘of course politically we won’t always see eye to eye and challenges will remain.

“But it’s only by working through these issues for the benefit of Wales will we all benefit and that will be good for the Welsh Government as well as good for the UK Government – but more importantly it will be good and better for Welsh people,” he said.

However, Mr Cairns also referred to the defeat of the ‘e-cigarette ban’ as a sign that Plaid Cymru may not be as willing to work with Labour as has previously been thought, which could pave the way for a non Labour-led Welsh Government.

Mr Cairns has previously courted controversy for his views on smoking. Shortly after his election in 2010, he signed an early day motion calling for a review of the smoking ban. In 2012, he was one of 50 MPs who wrote to the then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley expressing serious concerns over plain packaging proposals.

The letter described the proposal as ‘a smuggler’s charter. this policy threatens more than 5,500 jobs directly employed by the UK tobacco sector, and over 65,000 valued jobs in the associated supply chain. Given the continued difficult economic climate, businesses should not be subjected to further red tape and regulation’.

However, it was subsequently revealed that Mr Cairns had accepted two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show from Japan Tobacco International in 2011 and 2012. The total value of these tickets was around £2,300.

He recently represented the Wales Office at the St David’s Day debate, when Mr Crabb had ‘parliamentary duties’ with the Bexley Conservative Club ladies’ lunch. Mr Cairns subsequently apologised for ‘inadvertently misleading’ Welsh MPs.

Outside of politics, the 45-yearold former banker is a keen runner, and recorded the quickest time by an MP in last year’s London Marathon. He is married, with one son.

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