David Davis

What makes David Davis a Global Shaker?

David Davis is a British politician of the Conservative Party serving as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union since 2016. He has been an MP since 1987 first for Boothferry and then for Haltemprice and Howden from 1997 until the present day. Before he could attend university, Davis worked as an insurance clerk and enlisted in the Territorial Army’s 21 SAS (Artist) Regiment in order to save funds to retake his A-level examinations because his results were not up to scratch.

He then went on to attend the University of Warwick where he studied Molecular and Computer Science. Davis was a founding member of the university’s student radio station and a men’s choir. After graduating from Warwick he attended London Business School, completing a Master’s degree in Business and finally went to Harvard to complete an Advanced Management Program.

Between 2003 and 2008, he was the Shadow Home Secretary in the Shadow Cabinets of both Michael Howard and David Cameron. Davis had previously been a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2001 and 2005, coming fourth and second respectively.

David Davis is leading the charge for Theresa May’s government in the Brexit negotiations.

Davis is responsible for including Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in the negotiations, and ensuring that their interests are well represented.

He has also been working on a contingency plan in case the negotiations are not finalised within the two-year span – a possibility that his colleague Boris Johnson finds “perfectly okay”, whilst prominent economists strongly disagree.

In his role as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Davis announced that Parliament will take action on translating EU laws into British laws as part of the process of Withdrawal from the European Union.

On 7 September 2017, the European Commission published the minutes of a meeting in July at which Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, briefed the commission on the outcome of his first round of talks with Davis. Barnier expressed concern about Davis’s commitment to the talks.

Last updated: May 16, 2018

Next Profile