Boris Johnson: Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland took job because PM quit

Boris Johnson has made South Swindon MP Sir Robert Buckland his new Welsh secretary, replacing Simon Hart.

BBC political correspondent Ione Wells said no Conservative MPs in Welsh seats were willing to accept the job.

Sir Robert said he only accepted the job because Mr Johnson had resigned as Conservative leader.

But Labour's shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens called his decision to serve in Mr Johnson's government "utterly astonishing".

Mr Hart quit over the prime minister's leadership, saying it was no longer possible to "turn the ship around".

Llanelli-born Sir Robert was justice secretary from July 2019 to September 2021 before being sacked by Mr Johnson in a reshuffle.

Mr Johnson rapidly filled vacant cabinet posts on Thursday morning before confirming he was resigning as Conservative Party leader.

The ministers will remain in place until a new Conservative leader and prime minister is elected.

Sir Robert said he "would not have served in a Johnson cabinet yesterday, because he at that time had no intention of resigning".

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One that he "made that very clear to the chief whip and indirectly to him [Boris Johnson]".

"Because that had changed, because he had said he was resigning, I felt then I was able to come back and help the country."

Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens said: "I think anybody who yesterday said that they were not willing to have Boris Johnson as the leader of their party, and they weren't willing to serve in his government, who then today has agreed to serve in his government, whether as a member of cabinet or on the front bench, I just think people will find it utterly astonishing.

"How can you change your mind when you're still being led in a team by the same person that you have said,is unfit to lead the country?"

Sir Robert said that as a "proud Unionist" it was "an honour for me to serve as the Welsh secretary because I want to preserve our United Kingdom".

He said he wanted to "make sure that the work of the Welsh [Wales] Office goes on".

"I'm a proud Welshman, I have lots of links in Wales, I was born and brought up and worked in Wales for many, many years.

"I think there's a lot going on with regard to the Levelling Up and the Shared Prosperity Funds that are about to be launched and I will be making sure that all of that is running as it should, because that work needs to go on now.

"This is about people's lives and opportunities in Wales."

Speaking later to BBC Wales Today, Sir Robert said he had gained "extensive governmental experience of Wales" as solicitor general and then lord chancellor "dealing with the justice system in Wales".

Pressed again on how he could work with a prime minister he had described as having "personality issues" and "no authority", Sir Robert said: "His political authority is done.

"The decision was made and he's now accepted it and quite rightly resigned as leader of the Conservative Party.

"But the country still needs a government and the prime minister is there until his successor is elected.

"It's now our job to be the caretakers to make sure that the work of government continues."

In last week's Law Gazette, Sir Robert outlined his plans as a backbencher, saying he had decided to resume working as a barrister and as an unpaid academic writing about artificial intelligence in the courts.

After wave upon wave of resignations, Whitehall departments need ministers who can pick up the baton quickly.

New Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland - the sixth Conservative to do the job since 2010 - will not have long to learn his brief.

That fact he is Welsh - although he doesn't represent a Welsh seat - and has experience as a justice minister ought to give him a head start.

He was born in Llanelli in 1968 and went to a private school in the town, St Michael's.

After going to university in Durham, Sir Robert returned to Wales for a legal career, practising in criminal law as a barrister in Cardiff.

In 1997, he married Sian, who he met at university. They have twin children - Millicent and George - and live in Wroughton, near Swindon.

Sir Robert entered parliament in 2010 when he won the South Swindon seat, having stood unsuccessfully there and in Welsh constituencies at earlier elections.

He served as solicitor general for England and Wales under David Cameron - the beginning of a seven-year stint in government.

In July 2019 he joined the cabinet when Boris Johnson made him lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice.

He was not the first lawyer turned politician from Llanelli to occupy the ancient office: Labour's Elwyn Jones did it in the 1970s.

"To be the second Llanelli boy to be a lord chancellor is quite something," Sir Robert told BBC Wales in 2021.

He was fired, and replaced by Dominic Rabb, in the September 2021 reshuffle.

Now he's back in the cabinet as Mr Johnson tries to make sure the UK government can continue governing.

His experience overseeing the criminal justice system might come in handy.

The Welsh government wants powers over law and order devolved to Cardiff, but the Johnson government has insisted that won't happen.

Under devolution, a lot of the Welsh secretary's time is inevitably taken up talking to - or about - the Welsh government.

Disagreements and spats are nothing new, but things have been particularly tetchy of late, despite Sir Robert's predecessor Simon Hart telling us he got on well with Mark Drakeford and his ministers.

A threat by the UK government to repeal a Welsh law on trade unions is the latest flashpoint.

"It's remarkably different and much worse," one Welsh government minister told me when asked how relationships with Westminster had changed after Boris Johnson took over from Theresa May.

Let's see if Sir Robert can improve the situation.