Four in running to replace Glyn Davies

Montgomeryshire Conservatives will select from a list of four for their new Parliamentary candidate this weekend – and two are local.

The party needs a new candidate after MP Glyn Davies announced he would be standing down after nine years in office.

And the surprise news is that Assembly Member Russell George has decided not to stand for the Westminster role, deciding to concentrate on his role in Cardiff.

Powys County Councillor Amanda Jenner from Trewern and Craig Williams, a former Cardiff MP who was raised in Welshpool are the local candidates.

With the majority of the Parliamentary Conservative Party having been first elected since 2010, this is a relatively rare selection for a Conservative-held seat. Most that take place are for a target constituency currently held by another party.

Glyn Davies gained the seat with a majority of 1,184 in 2010 and saw his majority swell to 9,285 in 2017.

The four candidates are:

Amanda Jenner: A councillor in Montgomeryshire, she was first elected to Powys County Council in 2017. Cllr Jenner previously worked as a solicitor and is also a qualified secondary school teacher and former private tutor.

Alongside her council work, she is a local school governor and sits on the Powys Fostering Panel. She recently made headlines by opposing a pay-rise for councillors.

Craig Williams: As MP for Cardiff North from 2015-2017, during which time he served as PPS to David Gauke, Craig Williams was unfortunate to lose his seat despite increasing his vote. Since April of this year he has been a Special Adviser to the Brexit Secretary.

He stood against Rhodri Morgan in the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections, cut his political teeth as a Cardiff City Councillor from 2008-2015, and contested the Cardiff South and Penarth by-election in 2012 before succeeding Jonathan Evans as MP for Cardiff North.

Williams is from Welshpool and at one time worked for Glyn Davies as a researcher in the Welsh Assembly.

Oliver Harvey: As Deutsche Bank’s Head of Brexit Research, Harvey’s day job involves close study of the topic currently at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Among other outlets, he has written for The Times on the economic performance of the UK since the referendum. Prior to his work in financial services, he took a Masters’ degree in Political Science at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, where he also wrote for a weekly current affairs magazine on international relations.

Dom Morris: A fourth-generation farmer, working on the family farm in the Cotswolds, Dom Morris began his career as a pilot in the RAF but broke his back in flying training.

He later worked for the Prince’s Trust getting disadvantaged young people back into work, before working as a Political Officer in Afghanistan, Syria and the response to Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean, among other locations.

He sits on the DWP’s Social Security Advisory Committee, and was recently appointed to the Cotswolds Area Of Natural Beauty Board. He contested the Exeter constituency in the 2015 General Election.