Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies to stand down at next election

The Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire, Glyn Davies, has told his local party that he will not be their candidate at the next General Election. Mr Davies won the seat from the Liberal Democrats in 2010 and now has a majority of 9,285.

Mr Davies, who's 75, points out that the next election is meant to be in 2022. But he's giving his local party the chance to start selecting a new candidate at a time when political instability at Westminster has fuelled talk of an early election. In an interview with our Political Editor, Adrian Masters, he said it was a difficult time to be an MP.

Mr Davies has also been unhappy about plans to abolish the Montgomeryshire constituency as part of a plan to cut the number of Welsh seats from 40 to 29 but all consideration of that process has been halted by the Brexit crisis.

A former Chair of the Development Board for Rural Wales and AM for Mid & West Wales, he's always been proud to be a native and life-long resident of the constituency that he represents in parliament.

His constituency association will now have to decide on a successor. An early contender is the former Cardiff North MP, Craig Williams, who's now a special adviser to the Brexit Secretary, Stephen Barclay. Mr Williams is also a native of Montgomeryshire and has returned to live there since his defeat at the 2017 election.

Glyn Davies enthusiastically welcomed Mr Williams appointment to the Brexit department.

The support of the departing MP does not always secure the nomination for someone seeking to succeed him. Local activists jealously guard their right to pick the candidate that they will have to campaign to get elected. But it's unlikely that endorsement by Glyn Davies will do Craig Williams any harm at all.