Plaid Cymru have selected former Mayor of Barry, Cllr Ian Johnson, as the General Election candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cllr Johnson, 45, has been a member of the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Barry Town Council since 2012, leading the Plaid Cymru group on the county council since 2017.

A well-known figure in the town, Cllr Johnson says his scrutiny of the Labour-run council exposed a £3.7m over-spend on a new IT system and spending £2.7m on the Barry Docks bus station which didn’t have a single bus call for nearly six months.

An political researcher with a PhD from Cardiff University, Cllr Johnson is was involved in the campaign to prevent fracking in the Vale and fighting the Barry Docks Incinerator.

He said: “It is a great honour to stand again for election in the Vale of Glamorgan, and I will use my decade of experience as an elected councillor to do my best for the area if elected.

“I have a strong record of action, rather than just promises, as anybody who follows the local news will know.

“For years our public services have been under-funded and it will be my priority to ensure that Wales gets the money we deserve in order to end child poverty, improve the quality of service of the NHS and have a decent public transport system.”

The Vale is a battleground seat where Labour are aiming to unseat the Conservatives.