Fresher MPs arrive in Westminster

Eleven new Welsh MPs who won seats at the election have taken up their places at the House of Commons for the first time.

The new recruits travelled to Westminster on Wednesday to help re-elect the Speaker of the Commons.

They will be officially sworn in from Thursday before the state opening of Parliament next week

Only two constituencies changed hands in the election, with another nine seats getting new faces as their MPs stood down for Welsh Assembly duties.

Adam Price, who won Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour for Plaid Cymru, travelled to London from Ferryside in Carmarthenshire for his first day at the office.

He said: “There is a great sense of respsonsibility. I am the first Plaid Cymru MP for south Wales since Gwynfor Evans.

“I think in the election campaign we raised people’s hopes, and it is up to us now to start delivering.”

‘Important job’

Labour and Plaid Cymru also traded places on Ynys Mon (Anglesey), where Albert Owen won the island seat from Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones.

Mr Owen travelled by train from Holyhead and was waved off my a group of Labour supporters with placards and balloons.

He said: “It’s bound to change my daily life but, as I’ve indicated, I am going to a workplace and I see it that way.

“It’s a very important job and I don’t underestimate the task I have ahead of me.”

However, Mr Price made one of his first aims clear after he hit transport trouble. His plan to commute to London by rail with a band of 30 supporters was thwarted when, he claimed, the train company left him in the lurch.

He said he was quoted inconsistent prices and the operating company could not be sure the train would stop at the small Ferryside station.

The group organised a coach trip instead and Mr Price said he would work toward re-nationalising the railways.

Nine other Welsh constituencies have new MPs but voted their party back in after their existing members decided to leave to fulfill assembly duties.

Roger Williams held on to Brecon and Radnorshire for the Liberal Democrats.