Calls for St David's Day to be made a bank holiday have received a boost after the Secretary of State for Wales said he is in favour of it. There has been growing pressure in recent years to make St David's Day a bank holiday in Wales.
A petition, on the UK Government website, has more than 13,000 signatures and there have been calls from many places for Wales' patron saint to be honoured with a bank holiday.
Now, in an interview with S4C's Y Byd yn ei Le programme, Sir Robert Buckland has said: "I've always been very sympathetic to that. I think however we have got to be careful about having a plethora of too many bank holidays."
Read more: St David's Day Bank Holiday special report
Mr Buckland was first appointed to the post in the final stages of Boris Johnson's premiership and has retained his position in Liz Truss's cabinet. He advocated ditching another bank holiday in order to make room for the March 1st celebration.
"My personal view would be get rid of May Day, and have St David's Day as our bank holiday and it would be a nice quid pro quo," he said.
May Day, also known as International Worker's Day, has been a bank holiday in the UK since 1978. The Conservative MP, who is originally from Llanelli, said it was for others to decide whether such a change in the calendar should go ahead.
Previous attempts to make St David's Day a bank holiday have been denied by Westminster governments. St Andrew's Day is an annual bank holiday in Scotland, as is St Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland.
Back in 2000, the then National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously in favour of a St David’s Day Bank Holiday but the UK Government still won't budge.
The rationale for their decision is that it will cost the economy money and have a negative impact on businesses.
The full programme of Y Byd yn ei Le will be available on BBC iPlayer and S4C Clic.
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