Matt Smith was born and bred in Cardiff. Several generations of his family have lived and worked South Wales . His Dad was a factory worker . His mother worked at Cardiff University and was a voluntary Unison Auditor.
Matt went to Cardiff state schools St Peter’s Primary School, Corpus Christi comprehensive school and St David’s College of Further Education. Matt was the first person in his family to get A-Levels and went on to study at Oxford University.
Subsequently he was awarded funds to read for the Bar, qualified as a solicitor and now works as a lawyer. Matt’s career outside politics has given him a window into people’s lives and the professional and commercial world.
Matt is a Conservative because he believes in One Nation politics. We are the Party of the Workers and the social Ladder. Matt is a passionate believer in aspiration, social mobility and meritocracy.
Matt is standing in the Vale of Glamorgan to give local communities a strong voice in the Senedd. His three priorities for the Vale of Glamorgan are:
Firstly, Matt will put his shoulder to the wheel for better transport including the Dinas Powys bypass, a new train station for St Athan, more rail services west of Barry, better bus services and safer roads.
Secondly, Matt will work to secure more regeneration funds. He will call for business rate free zones for Barry, Llantwit Major and Dinas Powys and lower rates for firms and traders across the rural vale.
And thirdly, Matt will fight for local communities against top-down big government from both Cardiff Bay and Holton Road that together favour overdevelopment of our communities, the destructive M4 - A48 link road that would devastate Pendoylan, the polluting Barry incinerator the loss of rural schools and merger of the Vale with unsympathetic authorities in Cardiff and Bridgend.