Huw Irranca-Davies MS - Deputy First Minister of Wales and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs

Huw was born and raised in Gowerton at the gateway to the Gower peninsula – the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK. Gowerton at the time was a mixture of steel and heavy industry and agriculture, bridging the countryside and the urban and industrial, and this has shaped his life-long approach to politics and policy.

As a boy he attended Gowerton Comprehensive School, went on to study his first degree at Crewe and Alsager College (BA Hons) and later Graduated from Swansea Institute of Higher Education with an MSc in European Resource Management.

When he and Joanna married, they moved to the South Wales valleys where they feel deeply at home with the incredibly close and friendly valley communities, and share their love of exploring on foot this historic and beautiful landscape. They have three grown-up sons, and are all proud of their Welsh and Italian family roots: their combined name Irranca-Davies celebrates these Welsh-Italian links.

A keen hill-walker (former Vice-President of Ramblers Cymru), open-canoe paddler and “everyday cyclist on a sit-up-and-beg-bike”, when he has time he also relaxes watching rugby or reading historical novels (and never anything political) and tending his garden.

Huw worked for many years in public and private sector leisure management and as a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education before entering politics. In February 2002 he was elected as the Labour MP for Ogmore in a parliamentary by-election, a seat which he held until 2016 when he chose to stand as the Assembly Member for Ogmore at the National Assembly for Wales. For Huw this was a conscious mark of confidence in the young and strengthening democratic institutions in Wales. He was duly elected to the Assembly – now Senedd Cymru – in 2016.

In Westminster Huw served in several roles including as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ministers in DWP, Northern Ireland and DCMS; as a Government Whip; as the Under-Secretary of State for Wales; and as Environment Minister in Defra.

From 2010 he served as Shadow Energy Minister, and then as Shadow Minister for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs. In May 2015, he was elected as the Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, a position held until May 2016 when he was elected to the National Assembly of Wales – now Senedd Cymru.

In the Fifth Senedd he initially served as the Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee before becoming the Minister for Social Services and Children, then at the request of the First Minister became Chair of the Regional Investment Wales Steering Group, the European Advisory Group and the PMC committee overseeing the spending of EU funding streams in Wales.

Up to his appointment as Cabinet Secretary he was Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee and a member of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee. Amongst other responsibilities, he was also Chair of the Strategic Forum for Regional Investment in Wales and the Special Purpose committee on Senedd Reform. Huw was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on 21 March 2024.