Clywd South MP rules out North Shropshire Conservative run

Conservative MP Simon Baynes's Clwyd South seat will disappear if a review of boundaries confirmed earlier in October is ratified.

With the proposals aimed at reducing the number of seats in Wales, they would see the current Clwyd South constituency carved up, with the corridor covering Chirk up to the edge of Wrexham joining with Montgomeryshire, and Llangollen being added to another constituency stretching to the coast at Prestatyn.

READ MORE: Clwyd South seat set to be axed under shake-up

But Mr Baynes has now said he will not be standing for the Tories in North Shropshire, which was taken by the Liberal Democrats in an historic by-election in 2021 after Owen Paterson's resignation.

In a statement he said he “will not be putting my name forward for the selection of the Conservative Party parliamentary candidate for North Shropshire in the future”.

Mr Baynes was a member of Powys County Council from 2008 to 2012, and served as joint leader of the Conservative group.

The current boundaries in red, and the proposed new ones in blue

The following year, he joined Llanfyllin Town Council, where he remained a member until 2019 and served as Mayor of Llanfyllin from 2018 to 2020 before winning the Clwyd South seat in the 2019 election, defeating Labour incumbent Susan Elan Jones.

Shropshire Council cabinet member Dean Carroll was named the Tories' spokesman for North Shropshire earlier this year, indicating that he might be the one to attempt to regain the seat.

All of Wales' boundaries (in red) and how they could look (blue)

The North Shropshire constituency has traditionally been a stronghold for the Conservative Party with the seat having only been out of their control once in its over 100 year-long existence before Helen Morgan took the seat in a shock result last year.

It came after Mr Paterson resigned following a lobbying scandal.