Over a year on from winning the Dwyfor and Meirionnydd seat in the General Election, Liz Saville Roberts has spoken exclusively to Cambrian News reporter KATHRYN CUMMINGS about some of her experiences during a whirlwind 18 months...

It’s certainly been a year to remember for MP, Liz Saville-Roberts, with the shake-up of Westminster, following the Brexit vote, to raising her first Prime Minister’s question highlighting the unfairness of visa rules.

In May 2015 Mrs Saville Roberts made history after being voted Plaid Cymru’s first female MP after receiving 11,811 votes and described her win as ‘the greatest privilege of her life’.

The former Gwynedd councillor for Morfa Nefyn has now settled into her new role and is keen to make beneficial changes for her constituency over the next four years.

However, as the mother-of-two joined in a turbulent year for Westminster, she will remember her first year as being both ‘chaotic’ and ‘challenging’.

Speaking of her experience at the House of Commons following the day the UK voted to leave the European Union, she said: “Once the referendum vote had been announced, the whole place went into meltdown, it was completely chaotic.

“On a day-to-day basis we’d hear about who was in the running to be the next leader and who was stabbing who in the back.

"Someone said to me we would never experience anything like this again, which is very true. It was extraordinary, everything had just come to a standstill.”

Another shocking event to rock Westminster in the last year was the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

“Her death came as a real shock to everyone; to see her cut down like that doing her work in her own constituency was so tragic.

“I don’t like to admit it, but the incident did make me question my own security, as it did for all the other MPs, it was something I took for granted as I believe Dwyfor Meirionnydd is the best and one of the most safest places in the UK, but I knew after what happened to Jo I had to take precautions.

“The police have been fantastic, they got in contact with me following what happened and gave me some security advice.

“Being in your constituency is a huge part of your job and interacting with those that live in it, I was not letting what happened stop me from me doing my job,” the MP said.

Read the full interview in this week’s north editions of the Cambrian News, in shops now, or available online by clicking the digital editions link above