John Redwood 'will be missed', Welsh Secretary David Davies

David Davies, who is a Conservative general election candidate,  but remains in cabinet as the Welsh Secretary up until a new government is formed after the July 4 general election, was responding to the 72-year-old’s announcement he is stepping down as MP for Wokingham. 

The long serving politician becomes one of the latest of more than 70 Tory MPs to announce they will not be seeking re-election having declared in an online blog post he wouldn’t be standing again in the seat he has represented since 1987. 

In 1993 the Surrey MP was appointed Secretary of State for Wales by John Major but resigned the role in July 1995 after the Prime Minister challenged critics in his own cabinet of his European policy to stand against him for the leadership.

Then Welsh Secretary John Redwood, kneeling, overlooking plans for Wales' first urban village proposed for the Garden Festival of Wales site at Ebbw Vale. (Image: Archive)

Mr Redwood stood a second time for the party leadership in the 1990s but was again unsuccessful. 

Speaking in Usk, where he had been campaigning with Home Secretary James Cleverly, Mr Davies, who has been an MP since 2005, said: “A lot of people are standing down and people will be sorry to see him go, he’d been there a long time when I arrived.” 

Of Mr Redwood’s tenure as Welsh Secretary, Mr Davies said: “Well it was a bit before my time, during the 1990s, and pre-devolution so it would have been a very busy role. 

“I’ve had the chance to speak to him a few times in Parliament and I’m sure he will be missed by his colleagues.”