WITH just over a week to go until polling day, Monmouthshire’s Conservative candidate is enjoying a busy general election campaign.

 The senior Welsh Conservative has been the MP for Monmouth since 2005 and is standing again in the new parliamentary seat of Monmouthshire.

 A champion of local businesses, he was delighted to join Cllr Tony Kear, ward member for Llanbadoc and Usk, to officially welcome Shampooch – a pet shop and dog groomers – to Usk’s Bridge Street.

 James Ralph and his partner Daniel Price opened the first Shampooch in Monmouth in 2024. They decided to launch a second location in Usk after the business grew from strength to strength.

 Mr Davies also visited Monmouthshire Livestock Centre near Raglan where the Welsh Labour Government’s controversial Sustainable Farming Scheme remains a sore topic of conversation.

 He said: “Farmers remain extremely concerned that this deeply unpopular scheme, which has been delayed by a year, doesn’t come back in its current form.

 “There is a lot of unease too among the agricultural community about the Labour Party’s refusal to rule out any changes to inheritance tax that would make it hard for family farms to be handed down to sons and daughters.”

Mr Davies has also been raising the importance of the Haberdashers’ Monmouth schools to the economy of the town.

 It comes as the Labour Party manifesto pledges to end private schools’ VAT exemption and business rate relief – although it is not clear whether charitable status will also be removed.

 Mr Davies said: “Monmouth School for Boys has been serving the town since 1614. Today, the boys and girls schools support 580 jobs locally and generate £17m to the economy.

 “But if Labour wins the general election, there are plans afoot to charge parents 20 per cent VAT on independent school fees. This would have a significant impact on the whole community – pupils and parents, colleagues in the state sector and the wider economy.

 “Not only would VAT inevitably threaten the future of independent schools like Haberdashers’, it would also place an unfair burden on local education authorities like Monmouthshire if hundreds of pupils suddenly require state school places.”