I'll be 90 before I'm a minister says Welsh Tory MP

David Davies, still firmly a backbench MP at Westminster Credit: Parliament TV

Newport West MP Paul Flynn has made his debut at Westminster as Shadow Welsh Secretary.

The 81-year-old is Shadow Leader of the Commons as well. He's joked that also substituting for the suspended Aaron Ramsay in the Welsh football team "is a tad impractical".

Mr Flynn's unexpected double promotion is a result of the mass resignations from Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet. His appointment was welcomed today by a long-standing foe, the Monmouth MP David Davies.

Mr Davies is now chair of the Welsh Select Committee at Westminster but he cut his political teeth campaigning against Mr Flynn in Newport. He's 46 and has been an MP since 2005. If he's still an MP when he's 90, he'll have matched Lloyd George's 55 years at Westminster.

Carolyn Harris, who became MP for Swansea East last year, has taken on the role of Shadow Wales Office Minister and joined Paul Flynn for today's debate on the Wales Bill.