Robert Buckland

Robert James Buckland^[2] (born 22 September 1968) is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon South, having won the seat from the Labour Party at the 2010 general election.

Buckland was born in Llanelli in 1968, and was educated at Hatfield College, Durham, where he became Secretary of the Junior Common Room and President of the Union Society. He graduated in Law in 1990. Buckland became the Conservative Candidate for South Swindon in 2004, but he lost to Anne Snelgrove in the 2005 General Election, who won by a narrow majority of 1,353 votes

1995 Islwyn byelection

Buckland stood for the Conservatives in this byelection, losing his deposit.

2005 general election

Buckland replaced Simon Coombs are Conservative candidate for Swindon South for the 2005 general election. Despite a decline of Labour support at the time, Buckland lost to the sitting Labour MP Anne Snelgrove, who achieved 17,534 votes to his 16,181, but with a swing of 6.9% from Labour to Conservative.

2010 general election

In the 2010 general election, Buckland won the South Swindon seat with a majority of 3,544 seats, a swing of 5.51% to the Conservatives, defeating the incumbent Anne Snelgrove. In total, he won 19,687 votes, (41.8% of the total). Snelgrove only acquired 16,143 votes, losing 5.9% of previous Labour support to the Conservatives. Buckland will join Justin Tomlinson, Conservative MP for Swindon North, in parliament.

External links

• his weblog

References