David TC Davies: The ex-HGV driver in Sunak's cabinet

After about three years as a junior Wales Office Minister the Monmouth Conservative MP David TC Davies has been promoted to the cabinet as Welsh secretary by the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

But what do we know about Wales' new man around the UK cabinet table?

Let's get the TC thing out of the way first.

It stands for Thomas Charles, after the Methodist clergyman (1755-1814) from Bala - now in Gwynedd - who played a key role in setting up Sunday schools.

When the Welsh MP entered the UK parliament in 2005 the speaker would call him to speak as David TC Davies, to distinguish him from the English Tory MP David Davis who went on to become Brexit secretary.

Some MPs dubbed him Top Cat, a reference to the classic 1960s American cartoon series whose lead character was known as TC to "close friends".

Born in 1970 and educated at Bassaleg Comprehensive School in Newport, David TC Davies's grandfather on his mother's side was a miner at Clipstone Colliery, in Nottinghamshire, who would joke he was the "only Tory coal miner in the town".

His father, Peter Davies, was a prominent Conservative Newport councillor, a popular, larger than life character who was a regular fixture on the Welsh media.

After school David TC Davies worked for British Steel and joined the Territorial Army, spending 18 months as a Gunner with 104 Air Defence Regiment at Raglan Barracks in Newport.

A time abroad followed, including Australia, where his employment included spells as a nightclub promoter, tobacco picker and rickshaw driver.

Back in the UK he worked as a continental lorry driver and then managed the family haulage business.

He came to prominence in Welsh political life 25 years ago, as a "No" campaigner against the creation of the Welsh assembly.

He was on the losing side in that 1997 referendum, which came just months after Tony Blair's Labour landslide general election victory, although the referendum vote was tight, 50.3% for and 49.7% against.

Mr Davies had established credentials as a devolution sceptic.

He ran for election to the assembly he had opposed two years later, winning the Monmouth seat. He became the only Tory representing a directly elected assembly constituency, rather than one of the regional top-up seats using a system of proportional representation that secured his party colleagues a berth in Cardiff Bay.

He soon dedicated himself to learning Welsh, impressing Welsh speakers in the fledgling institution with his determination to use the language at every opportunity, even if he mangled his words a little as he was getting to grips with it.

Mr Davies made the headlines when, during a debate in the assembly's first year, Labour member Alison Halford was accused of inappropriate behaviour for saying said he had "one of the nicest bottoms I have seen for some considerable time".

His response: "The bottom line is that there are more serious things we could be talking about but on this occasion I'll turn the other cheek."

He was elected MP for Monmouth in 2005. During his political career he has got himself into hot water from time to time for controversial comments on sensitive subjects.

In 2006, after his house was burgled while his family and visitors slept, he called for homeowners to be allowed to arm themselves with Taser stun guns.

Two years later he was slow-handclapped at a National Black Police Association (NBPA) conference when he said they should let white officers be full members and not doing so might be seen as racist.

The NBPA said Mr Davies had been disrespectful, that it was made up of local associations and that some of them allow full white membership.

Mr Davies, a special constable at the time, had been invited by mistake, when the NBPA wanted to hear from "the other" David Davis, a former shadow home secretary.

In 2013 he said his opposition to same sex marriage and support for a referendum on EU membership would put himself into the "swivel eyed-loon, fruitcake" category reported to have been described by someone close to Prime Minister David Cameron at the time.

In 2016 his call for child migrants arriving in the UK from Calais to have their teeth tested to verify their age was condemned by dentists.

He has also been an outspoken critic of transgender rights.

In 2018 he joined a Twitter conversation about the Labour Party's suspension of a member for posting a message that read: "Trans women are men."

He wrote: "Somebody possessing a penis [and a] pair of testicles is definitely not a woman. This should be a biological fact not a matter for political debate."

The LGBT+ Conservatives group replied: "David TC Davies' transphobic views are abhorrent and out of kilter with Conservative Party policy".

The reply also included a phrase which implied an offensive term against Mr Davies - something he said was "abusive and misogynistic", which the group later apologised for, promising to "continue to debate with him vigorously on trans rights but in a mutually respectful way".

Speaking on BBC Radio Cymru about his controversial opinions last year, he told Beti George: "I don't want to cause offence to anyone.

"But, at the same time, I think I, or others in politics, have the right to say things that are sometimes difficult to hear."

He said he would not apologise for anything he had said in the past.

Fellow Tories say he has calmed down over the years.

He spent nine years chairing the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, worked as an assistant government whip and as a junior Wales Office minister before his promotion to the cabinet as Welsh secretary.

He showed his pragmatic side in 2018 when, as a dedicated Brexiteer, he urged fellow Tory Eurosceptics in the European Research Group to "swallow their pride" and back Theresa May's "half-loaf Brexit" deal or risk wrecking the whole project.

Amid the increasing levels of abuse aimed at politicians at the time he took to wearing a body camera in 2019 for "protection and evidential purposes".

Later that year he expressed frustration over MPs representing English seats being made Wales Office ministers, but was appointed to that deputy role in the department a few months later.

Outside politics, he married his long-term Hungarian girlfriend Aliz in 2003, they live in Monmouth and have three children.

He is a keen fitness enthusiast, attending the gym every day.

As an amateur boxer he provided lively footage for TV coverage of a committee inquiry into prisons and how to steer young people away from offending by sparring with Joe Calzaghe and has fought charity matches as "The Tory Tornado".

Nearly two and a half decades after TC arrived in Cardiff Bay as one of the first Welsh assembly members, he has finally become Top Cat at the Wales Office with a seat at the UK cabinet table.