Glyn Davies: My agonising decision

 

The shire, one of Wales’s oldest constituencies, has been torn in two by the Boundary Commission as part of its independent review into slashing the number of Welsh MP’s from 40 to 30.

 

And it has left Mr Davies (right), who swept to victory for the Conservatives at the last election by overthrowing Lembit Opik and the Liberal Democrats, with an agonising decision to make.

 

“It is very sad and disappointing to see the end of a constituency with such a rich tradition and long history,” said Mr Davies who lives in Berriew which has been placed in the proposed ‘south Powys’ constituency along with Montgomery and Newtown, while Welshpool and Llanfair will join towns like Ruthin, Llangollen and Denbigh in a northern constituency.

 

“I will be speaking with town and community councils in the coming weeks because I am going to object and ask for the boundary to be changed. I don’t like the new boundary and will push for changes to the draft.”

 

Mr Davies said he backed the review in principal but, nevertheless, added “it doesn’t mean that I have to like the outcome”.

 

“MPs behaved in such a disgraceful way with the expenses scandal that people wanted less of them and we have responded to that with this review and a reduction of MPs,” he said. “This proposal is only the first stab at it and I hope they will listen and re-draw the Montgomeryshire line. I don't think I will be making a decision as to which constituency to run for at the next election for at least 12 months.”

 

However a re-draw will only affect smaller communities like Montgomery and Berriew so it is inevitable that Montgomeryshire will be served by two MP’s for the first time from 2015.

 

In total, there will 50 fewer MP’s at the next general election with the overall number reduced from 650 to 600.