It has always been a great privilege to represent the valley where my family has lived for over 160 years. Because I’ve lived in Torfaen all my life, I care deeply about our communities, from Blaenavon right down to Cwmbran.

I have been very fortunate to have played a role as Welsh and Northern Ireland Secretary, but this is my home, and nowhere is more important to me.

Those local roots have helped me to understand the concerns of the people I meet in my surgeries and around Torfaen. It also means that local campaigns mean so much to me personally, whether it’s the Cwmbran prison proposals, the opencast application at Varteg, or working to help bring more jobs to our area.

With your support, I will use my experience in the next term to fight hard for the people of the Eastern Valley. I will stand up for our communities with determination and I will continue to hold my regular local surgeries.

I will speak up on behalf of local families and our older people especially. I backed measures like tax credits, bus passes and winter fuel payments and I will continue to fight for the rights of pensioners in Torfaen.

In Torfaen as elsewhere, this election is a big choice for our country. Times have not been easy, with the global recession hitting every town and village across Torfaen. On top of that, I know that trust in our democracy needs restoring.

But there is a clear choice in this election - between a Labour Government that stepped in to help people in tough times and will secure our recovery, building for a fairer future, and a Tory Government that would have walked on by, leaving people on the scrapheap.

People I’ve spoken to around Torfaen during this campaign certainly don’t want a Tory Government back! We remember what happened in the 1980s and 1990s, with three million unemployed and 15% mortgage rates, and we can see that they simply haven’t changed - just look at their plans to give millionaires an inheritance tax cut. A Tory Government would endanger our economic recovery, threatening jobs in Torfaen and across Wales.

So to build a better future for all in our area, I would urge people to vote Labour on May 6th - a vote for anyone else could mean you wake up on May 7th with the Tories in power.