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.

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, before becoming a Junior Minister in the Wales Office in Summer 2007.  Most recently, after the Government reshuffle of October 2008, Huw has moved to DEFRA, to become the Minister responsible for the marine and natural environment, wildlife and rural affairs.

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.

Before becoming a Government Minister, Huw sat 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.

 In May 2006 Huw was appointed to the Government as Assistant Government Whip, before being promoted to the Ministerial position of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Wales Office in 2007. 

You can find out about Huw's current responsibilities at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs here