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Welsh Secretary becomes first cabinet member to switch support from Sunak to Truss

13 Aug 2022 2 minute read
Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland. Photo Jonathan Brady PA Images

The Welsh Secretary has switched his support from Rishi Sunak to Liz Truss, as the latter looks increasingly likely to win the Conservative leadership contest and become the next Prime Minister.

Sir Robert Buckland, the MP for Swindon who was appointed Welsh Secretary when Simon Hart resigned last month, becomes the first cabinet member to switch from endorsing one of the final two candidates to the other.

Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “Liz understands the need to make supply-side reforms, unlocking the private sector that powers our economic growth through investment and providing high-skilled jobs, such as the ones I saw at Airbus in North Wales on my visit with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor on Thursday.”

He also hinted that it may be time for Rishi Sunak to concede so that they did not allow “what has been an overall positive contest for our party slide into more blue-on-blue as the weeks roll on”.

“It is time for positive politics, time to come together, and time for Liz to lead.”

‘Effective’

Sir Robert wrote: “I know both candidates well and have worked with them in government and in Cabinet. At the outset of the contest, I wrote for The Telegraph outlining what my underlying approach to this contest would be.

“I have looked at ideas and principles first, and personalities second. During the parliamentary rounds, I backed Rishi Sunak as I felt that he was at that stage embodying what we needed.

“As the campaign has moved on, and as I have listened carefully to both candidates, I have thought deeply about the issues that move me and what I want to see the next prime minister doing. Changing your mind on an issue like this is not an easy thing to do, but I have decided that Liz Truss is the right person to take our country forward.”

He added that Liz Truss’s support for a British Bill of Rights was also a key reason to support her.

“We need to make these reforms truly effective by reviewing this proposed legislation,” he said. “Liz has pledged to address the specific concerns that I have raised about it; she wants to make the most of this Bill and to make sure that it works.”


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Richard
Richard
1 year ago

Says it all really- be principled and and steadfast in life …….but obviously not politics.

He has served with them both – so knows their leanings and thoughts on a range of issues…..so no shocks…one might think 🤔

I hope his legal advice when Attorney General did not change in the 💨 winds or adversity ?

This may indeed been seen at the end of the day as more of a comment sadly on his judgment that either LT or RS’s.

Steve George
Steve George
1 year ago

Bobi pob ochr!

hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve George

..ap Sioni ?

Bryn
Bryn
1 year ago

Robert Buckland, MP for Swindon, Secretary of State for Wales…
Ahhh Swindon..
I know it well… Deep in the heart of Gwynedd isn’t it?
Swindon!
Myn Iau..
Y fath lol…

hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago
Reply to  Bryn

Nah, It’s Gwent East. As laid down in the new regional maps for 2032 !

Kenneth Vivian
Kenneth Vivian
1 year ago

Yet another example of an English majority and constituency pushing political views and prime minister on “low level” Corbynistic Wales despite contrary views of the Drakeford oriented population: such is UK democracy.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago

The first thing I thought when I heard this was that his Swindon constituents should consider his actions here carefully when next holding their pencils above the ballot paper.

George
George
1 year ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

Agreed. The only thing more shameful than backing either of these two to be next PM is shifting to Liz Truss based on what she’s said so far.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  George

He must think he can flip flop like the voting membership were originally allowed to do before the security clampdown. He may flip again yet, THEN FLOP AGAIN! It’s like supporting Man City one week and Man Utd the next. With such a wishy washy lack of conviction, you’re not welcome anywhere after a while.

Dai Rob
Dai Rob
1 year ago

Shapeshifter.

Andrew Thomas
Andrew Thomas
1 year ago

I wonder though what has been promised to him

hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago

Boy is backing horses likely to enable continuity in a well paid number

Syr Wynff ap Concor Y Boss
Syr Wynff ap Concor Y Boss
1 year ago

I shall now refer to this nitwit as Mousollini.
Swapping sides half way through. I don’t care who wins, I want them out at the next election.
But just so Mousollini loses his job I hope Sunak wins.

I Humphrys
I Humphrys
1 year ago

Political hernia.

Julie Jones
Julie Jones
1 year ago

This is why he is known in London circles as Pendulum Bob

One of the two witnesses
One of the two witnesses
1 year ago

Another opportunist weathercock bum-licking for a job.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

WS Robert Buckland is abandoning the sinking ship what is HMS Sunak because he wants to keep his new cushy cabinet job with a fat wage that effectively does nothing but be an English overseer to Wales as stipulated in the Act of Union Wales 1535 & 1543.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Y Cymro

Those acts were signed by people like him. Cymru had no say in joining a union. Annexation 1406 was the last word and Annibyniaeth 20__? will be the next.

Peter Cuthbert
Peter Cuthbert
1 year ago

So he is keen to see the UK abandon the European Convention on Human Rights and adopt the Tory’s ‘Human Rights for the Rich’ Bill. I think that would be more than enough evidence for not voting for him next time round if I were a Swindon voter. It also is a good pointer to the sort of views he will spout in his Non Job as Welsh Secretary.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Mr and Mrs Truss please come and collect your daughter, she is under the impression that she is to be the next Prime Minister of England…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Nicola Sturgeon calls Boris Johnson a disgrace to the office of prime minister but he knew it and was proud of the fact. Liz Truss will be the same but in her heart of hearts she won’t know it, please Mr and Mrs Truss for the sake of 65 million people take her home…and this fine fellow approves…

He doesn’t even know how to wear a suit…

Last edited 1 year ago by Mab Meirion

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