Jeremy Miles | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care | |
| Assumed office 11 September 2024 | |
| First Minister | Eluned Morgan |
| Preceded by | Mark Drakeford |
| Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language | |
| In office 21 March 2024 – 16 July 2024 | |
| First Minister | Vaughan Gething |
| Preceded by | Vaughan Gething (Economy) Himself (Welsh Language) |
| Succeeded by | Ken Skates (Economy) |
| Minister for Education and Welsh Language | |
| In office 13 May 2021 – 20 March 2024 | |
| First Minister | Mark Drakeford |
| Preceded by | Kirsty Williams (Education) Eluned Morgan (Welsh Language) |
| Succeeded by | Lynne Neagle |
| Minister for European Transition | |
| In office 13 December 2018 – 13 May 2021 | |
| First Minister | Mark Drakeford |
| Preceded by | Mark Drakeford |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Counsel General for Wales | |
| In office 16 November 2017 – 13 May 2021 | |
| First Minister | Carwyn Jones Mark Drakeford |
| Preceded by | Mick Antoniw |
| Succeeded by | Mick Antoniw |
| Member of the Senedd forNeath | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Gwenda Thomas |
| Majority | 5,221 (18.9%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 1971 (age 54) Pontarddulais, Wales |
| Political party | Labour Co-op |
| Residence(s) | Swansea Valley, Wales |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
Jeremy Miles (born August 1971) is a WelshLabour Co-op politician serving asCabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care since September 2024.
He previously served in theWelsh Government asCabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language from March to July 2024,[1][2]Counsel General for Wales from 2017 to 2021,Brexit Minister from 2018 to 2021, and the Minister for coordinating Wales’ recovery from theCOVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021.[3] Miles has been theMember of the Senedd (MS) forNeath since 2016.
In December 2023 Miles became one of two candidates in theWelsh Labour leadership election to replaceMark Drakeford as party leader, losing toVaughan Gething.[4]
On 19 September 2025, Miles announced he would not seek re-election in thenext Senedd election.[5]
He was born and brought up inPontarddulais, nearSwansea, and, as a native Welsh speaker, was educated at a bilingual comprehensive school – Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera in theSwansea Valley.[6] He graduated fromNew College, Oxford, where he read law. After graduating, he taught law at the Centre for English Legal Studies,Warsaw University.[7]
He returned to the UK and practised as a solicitor inLondon initially, and then held senior legal and commercial posts in media sector businesses includingITV and with the US television network and film studio,NBCUniversal, based in London.[8]
He stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in the safe Conservative seat ofBeaconsfield at the 2010 general election. Miles also stood in the Labour selection forAberavon in 2014, losing the selection toStephen Kinnock by one vote.[9]
After returning to live in South Wales, he set up his own business affairs consultancy, working with international clients in the broadcast and digital sectors.[8]
Following the announcement byGwenda Thomas, the then-Assembly Member for Neath, that she was planning to stand down at the2016 National Assembly for Wales election, he was selected to stand as the Labour and Co-operative candidate in Neath constituency in October 2015, following a twinned selection process with Gower constituency.[10]
He was until his selection as the candidate for Neath a trustee and secretary of the social justice charity the Bevan Foundation.[11]
He was elected to theSenedd in May 2016 and was one of the first out gay MSs elected.[12] In November 2017, he was nominated to be theCounsel General for Wales. Before his appointment to government, he sat on the Economy, Skills and Infrastructure committee, Culture, Welsh Language and Communications committee and the External Affairs committee and was the chair of the Co-operative group of AMs.[13]
In November 2017,First Minister of WalesCarwyn Jones undertook aWelsh Government reshuffle.[14] Miles was nominated to the cabinet-level role of Counsel General.[15]
In March 2018, he introduced draft legislation that would create acodifiedstatute book ofWelsh law, which would make Wales the first of the home nations to organise its laws in this way. The statute book would be designed to improve accessibility to Welsh Law for both lawyers and the general population.[16]
In 2019, he led for the Welsh Government in taking legislation through the Senedd which for the first time introduced votes for 16 year olds in Senedd elections.[17] The subsequent2021 Senedd election was the first election that 16 year olds in Wales could vote.[18]
In his role as Counsel General he announced in 2019 his decision that the Welsh Government would join thecase brought by Gina Miller against the UK Conservative Government in theSupreme Court, arguing that the Conservative government acted unconstitutionally in proroguing Parliament and denying the Senedd the opportunity to influence the course of Brexit.[19] The case was successful and the Supreme Court ruled that Boris Johnson had acted unlawfully.[20]
In July 2020 he issued a joint statement withJane Hutt, equalities minister on the human rights of the trans community and confirming the Welsh Government’s support for equal rights for trans people.[21]
He brought another legal case against the Conservative Government in 2021 over theInternal Market Act which gave the UK Government sweeping new powers in devolved areas, arguing that the UK Government was “stealing powers from devolved governments” and that the Act was “an attack on democracy and an affront to the people of Wales”.[22]
As Minister for European Transition he led the co-ordination of the Welsh Government’s activities to prepare Wales for theUK’s departure from the European Union, for was also responsible for liaising with the UK Government over Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU and he represented the Welsh Government in negotiations with the UK Government and other devolved governments for the Intergovernmental Relations Review, to strengthen Wales’ voice in intergovernmental relations.[23] In May 2019 he argued for a change in the Welsh Government’s policy so that it would supportanother Brexit referendum, and that the UK Government had failed to deliver a deal with the EU based on promises made in the first referendum.[24]
During the Covid pandemic he was also tasked with post-Covid planning. He convened a series of experts to guide Wales’ longer-term planning which includedGordon Brown[25] and launched a national conversation through the “Our Future Wales” campaign where the public could email proposals to be considered by the government, based on their Covid experiences.[26] This led to the publication of a post-Covid priorities plan in October 2020.[27]
In December 2023, following the resignation ofMark Drakeford, Miles stood (along withVaughan Gething) forthe election to succeed him as both party leader and thereforeFirst Minister of Wales.[28]
In July 2024, Miles resigned from the Welsh Cabinet, alongside three other cabinet members, fromFirst MinisterVaughan Gething'sgovernment, prompting Gething'ssubsequent resignation as First Minister.[29][30]
In September 2024, Gething's successor as first minister,Eluned Morgan, appointed Miles asCabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, returning Miles to cabinet.[31]
In August 2016, he warned that public disillusionment with politics could threaten devolution in Wales.[32] He expanded on this in an essay for Western Mail where he warned "if we assume the only choice is between complacency and immediate disaster, then we will fail to learn the lessons of Brexit".[33]
In 2016, he entered the Pinc List: The 40 most influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in Wales for the first time.[34] and was named again on the 2017 Pinc List.[35]
In March 2018, he wrote an article[36] for theFabian Society in Wales, setting out challenges for the country and seeking to kick-start a debate on the future ofWelsh Labour under a new leader.[37] Soon after, he nominated and endorsedMark Drakeford in theelection to succeedCarwyn Jones as Party leader and First Minister.[38]
Miles is gay,[39][40] a member of theCo-operative Party and was elected chair of the Co-operative Group of Senedd Members in 2016. He is also a member of the GMB and Unite trade unions. He is a former member of theBlairite groupProgress.[41]
Prior to being elected, he had volunteered as a youth mentor with the Young Foundation, and also as an adviser at free legal advice centres. He was an adviser to the Use Your Vote campaign for the2010 general election. He claims his political interests include economic and community development, skills, co-ops and mutuals.[6]
He lives in theSwansea Valley and enjoys watching films, reading, cooking, hiking and cycling and following local rugby.[6]
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