New MP Fay Jones has voted to back the Prime Minister’s plan for the UK to leave the EU on Friday, January 31.

Ms Jones, who returned Brecon and Radnorshire to the Conservatives last Friday, December 13, was one of 358 MPs who voted in favour of Boris Johnson’s EU Withdrawal Bill compared to 234 who voted against it.

The 34-year-old said: “I did vote to back it. I actually walked through the lobby behind the Prime Minister which was good.”

Ms Jones said she is not concerned by the withdrawal of the protection of employment rights from the bill.

She said: “We’re going to be introducing our own legislation later in the year.

“A lot of our protection of workers rights already goes further than the European Union’s and it will be the same in that new legislation which will go even further.

“Different UK Governments have put more and more protection in place, and it’ll be more flexible and it will give us more control of our own jobs.”

Ms Jones, who is one of the first three female MPs for the Conservatives in Wales, also said she is confident that child refugees and EU citizens who’ve made their homes in the UK will be protected.

The Prime Minister’s bill scraps commitment to negotiate a new deal for refugee children hoping to join their relatives in the UK.

She said: “It’s the sort of which is going to be covered in our own new immigration bill.

“We felt it couldn’t be covered in the EU Withdrawal Bill very well, but we will cover it in our own immigration bill.”

The bill, which also bans the Government from extending the transition period past 2020, will now go onto further scrutiny in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Former MP Jane Dodds, who remains the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, called on her successor yesterday to oppose a no-deal Brexit.

Ms Dodds challenged the MP, ahead of today’s vote, to go against the Prime Minister’s move to make the extension to the transition period illegal, and to consider the impact of a no-deal Brexit on farmers and rural communities.

Ms Dodds said: “Fay Jones used to work for the NFU, and once spoke very passionately about the benefits the EU brought to rural areas like ours. She knows how damaging no deal will be for our farmers and their livelihoods.

"That’s why I am challenging her to take a stand for what she knows is right and to do the right thing for our communities by opposing no deal tomorrow."

However Ms Jones responded that she is doing what she has been elected to do and sticking to the manifesto’s promise on Brexit.

She said: “I am doing what I was elected to do, which is to deliver Brexit.

“There is great new regulations and framework coming in for farmers and the environment which will reward farmers for the great work they do in stewarding the environment while continuing to produce good and healthy food.”

Agricultural policy is devolved.