Former Welsh Secretary reflects on 'incredibly stressful' time in Cabinet

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

Eighteen months since losing his place in government former Welsh secretary David Davies has said he didn’t realise at the time how “stressful” the job was. 

The former Monmouth MP lost his place in Parliament at the July 2024 general election which ended the Conservatives’ 14 year run in government and for Mr Davies, 25 years representing the constituency. 

He had been first elected to Parliament at the 2005 general election, Tony Blair’s last victory as Labour leader, as the Conservatives gained their first seats in Wales since being wiped out in the 1997 Blair landslide. 

That paved the way for Welsh devolution and the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales, with Mr Davies elected the first Assembly Member for Monmouth at the inaugural 1999 election. 

His political life has now come almost full circle as his time as an MP, and cabinet minister, was ended by another Labour landslide and he is back at the former National Assembly, now known as the Senedd, though working as the chief of staff for the Conservative group rather than an elected representative. 

“It’s about looking after the Conservative group members and it’s not dissimilar to the role I had as a government whip in terms making sure people have what they need to do the job,” said Mr Davies explaining his current role in Cardiff Bay. 

He also believes he brings the benefit of experience: “I’d like to think because I’ve been around for a long time if people are having problems they can talk to me because I’ve probably had those problems myself and I understand the stress MPs, and Senedd Members are under. 

“I dare I say it understand it better than they do themselves because I don’t think they realise just how stressful their lives are. I didn’t realise until I stepped out of it.” 

Mr Davies was appointed Welsh Secretary in October 2022 when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister following Liz Truss’s six week premiership, having been appointed a Wales Office minister in 2019. 

But while Mr Davies admits he misses being an MP he also feels relieved of a burden. 

“I enjoyed being a Member of Parliament and I’ve quite enjoyed the last 18 months not being a Member of Parliament. I’ll always see the silver linings of things. Being an MP is a great job, and it comes with a lot of responsibility but it does, if I’m honest about this – and I think every MP will agree – if you’re doing the job properly you don’t get a lot of free time. It’s a seven day a week job.   

“I don’t want say I wouldn’t like to be the MP still, because obviously I would, but I’m not particularly unhappy. 

“The cabinet role was a funny one, it is an incredibly stressful job. I don’t see how anyone from any party would deny that. I’m not asking for any sympathy, I’m not doing it now and haven’t done it for 18 months, so there’s a small part of me, a very small part I have to say with this government, that almost feels sorry for anyone in cabinet because they’ll have no peace. From the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep they will be on the job. 

“Quite often it was long journeys trying to be switched on for meetings having been driven in the back of a car, which I hate, I hate being driven in cars. You come out feeling half car sick and having a whole load of figures you’re trying to remember for a meeting and then off you go. Instead of five star meals in a hotel, you’re grabbing McDonald’s on the way. I’m not complaining about it, I enjoyed it but I’m not sort of waking up every morning thinking ‘ooh god, if only I was doing that today’. Not at all. 

“This is all sounding like a whole load of whinges, and it’s not. I loved doing the job, I miss doing the job but there are plenty of aspects of it that I don’t miss at all.” 

2026 will see a Senedd election in which Labour’s dominance of Welsh politics is expected to be seriously challenged and the Conservatives are also predicted to struggle, with polls indicating both Plaid Cymru and Reform could benefit. 

Mr Davies, who isn’t standing in the Senedd election, said there is “no chance” he would become the latest in a long line of Conservatives to defect to Reform: “I’ve been a member of the Conservative Party since 1983. I first went and canvassed as a 13-year-old for Mrs Thatcher, and for a guy called Mark Robinson in Newport West who won. I can’t throw that away, 40 years.” 

Despite appreciating the free time he’s had to spend with his family, or surfing at Rest Bay, Mr Davies is still open to making a Westminster comeback: “I don’t rule it in or out. I’m certainly not chasing after it, I don’t want to be standing at by-elections elsewhere, I don’t want to live anywhere else other than here. Whatever else I do I love living in Monmouth and Monmouthshire and I’ve had lots of good wishes from people.”