David Davies (politician)

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For other persons named David Davies, see David Davies (disambiguation).

David Thomas Charles Davies (born July 27, 1970) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Monmouth.

Born in London and was educated at Bassaleg School, Newport. After leaving school in 1988 he worked for the British Steel Corporation and served with the Territorial Army, before he went travelling in Asia and Australia, whilst on his travels he had many small jobs including picking grapes and tobacco and running a backpacker's hostel in Queensland. He worked for his family in their shipping company, Burrow Heath Ltd, before he entered politics. He unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Bridgend at the 1997 General Election but finished in second place some 15,248 votes behind the sitting Labour MP Win Griffiths. He was elected to the National Assembly for Wales at the inaugural 1999 Welsh Assembly Election for the seat at Monmouth.

He was elected as member of the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election for Monmouth, the same seat he holds in the Welsh Assembly. He defeated the sitting Labour MP Huw Edwards by 4,527 votes, and remains the MP there. He made his maiden speech on May 18, 2005, in which he gave a history of his constituency from Geoffrey of Monmouth forwards. [1] In parliament he joined the Welsh Affairs Select Committee on his election.

As his name sounds the same as David Davis, a candidate in the 2005 Conservative leadership contest, confusion could occur between the two in Westminster. Therefore, David Davies is referred to in the House of Commons in Westminster as David T.C. Davies. This has caused opposition MPs to refer to him in jest as Top Cat, a cartoon character who shares the same initials, T.C..

He has been married to Aliz, who is Hungarian, since 2003 and they have two children. He has been the deputy leader of the Conservative Party in Wales since 1999, and he enjoys surfing and can often be found in the sea at Porthcawl or Llantwit Major.