Alun Cairns
Encyclopedia
Alun Hugh Cairns is a Welsh Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician. A member of the National Assembly for Wales
National Assembly for Wales
The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

 for the in the South Wales West
South Wales West (National Assembly for Wales constituency)
South Wales West is an electoral region of the National Assembly for Wales, consisting of seven constituencies. The region elects 11 members, seven directly elected constituency members and four additional members...

 region since 1999, he was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan (UK Parliament constituency)
Vale of Glamorgan is a county constituency in South Wales, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

.

Background

Brought up in Clydach near Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

, he attended Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pontardawe and Ysgol Ddwyeithog Ystalyfera and is a fluent Welsh speaker. Gained a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA), specialising in corporate location and inward investment.

Professional career

Cairns has experience in the business sector, having worked for the Lloyds Bank Group as a Business Development Consultant before being elected to the National Assembly.

Political career

His political interests include economic development and transport, and considerable experience within the Welsh Conservative Party
Welsh Conservative Party
The Welsh Conservatives & Unionists , informally the Welsh Conservatives or Welsh Tories, are the part of the Conservative Party which operates in Wales...

. As a member of the assembly's economic development and audit committees, he criticized the Welsh Government over a range of issues from transport infrastructure, European regional aid, public spending, and the Welsh economy.

Alun has also been a vocal opponent of the Scarweather Sands offshore wind farm development near Porthcawl
Porthcawl
Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...

 and has long been an active member of the Conservative Party in South West Wales.

Alun stood for Parliament in Gower in 1997 and was the Conservative Party's candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan at the 2005 General Election. He was re-selected as Parliamentary candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan (UK Parliament constituency)
Vale of Glamorgan is a county constituency in South Wales, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 in July 2007.

National Assembly for Wales

First elected to the assembly as AM for South Wales West in 1999, he was re-elected in 2003 and 2007
National Assembly for Wales election, 2007
The 2007 National Assembly election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament election took place...

 and served as the party's spokesman on economic development and transport for eight years. In the Third Assembly he held the education and lifelong learning portfolio and also chaired the Assembly's Finance Committee. On 11 July 2007 he became the Shadow Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in the National Assembly for Wales.

On 14 June 2008 he resigned from his Shadow Cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...

 position after making controversial anti-Italian remarks on BBC Radio Cymru
BBC Radio Cymru
BBC Radio Cymru is BBC Cymru's Welsh-language radio station, broadcasting throughout Wales from studios in Cardiff, Bangor, and Aberystwyth on FM since 1977. At the time of its launch it was one of the few FM-only radio services in the UK...

. He was re-appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Local Government on 22 October 2008 after completion of a party investigation.

Controversy, resignation and reinstatement

In March 2003, Alun Cairns faced an investigation by the National Assembly's standards committee following a complaint that he tried to alter his home address in order to add value to his property.This was untrue, and the Royal Mail confirmed they had made a mistake with the postcode. Alun Cairns was cleared by National Assembly's standards committee.

In September 2008, Alun Cairns admitted that he asked for a National Assembly rule to be "clarified" to determine whether he could claim expenses for a second home in Cardiff. A rule change introduced in late 2006 by the Assembly's House Committee allowed him to claim expenses related to a flat in Cardiff even though his main home was reclassified as being situated in the Vale of Glamorgan through no fault of his own.

While taking part in Radio Cymru's weekly radio show, Dau o'r Bae, on 13 June 2008, Cairns was asked to apologise on air, and immediately did so, for referring to Italians as 'greasy wops'. He subsequently resigned from his post in the Shadow Cabinet. On 14 June 2008 Cairns was suspended as the parliamentary candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan while the party carried out an investigation. Cairns was reinstated as the parliamentary candidate and to the Shadow Cabinet on 22 October 2008 upon completion of the investigation.

House of Commons

Alun was elected as the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan in May 2010, taking the seat from Labour with a majority of more than 4,300.

External links


Offices held

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