A candidate to be Brecon and Radnorshire’s next MP has spoken out about abuse she has received while on the campaign trail.

Conservative candidate Fay Jones said she received abuse on the door-step while canvassing on Monday evening before returning to her home in Brecon to find her campaign signs had been vandalised.

Ms Jones said she was in the north-east of the constituency when she was a greeted by an "angry man" who she described as “personally abusive”.

The 34-year-old, who is currently taking a break from her job as a political lobbyist in Cardiff, said: “There was a man and he was really not very nice. He was personally abusive towards me.

“There are not many of those people around to be fair. Most people, if they disagree with you, they’re very pleasant and they’ll still chat to you. You do get one or two who are unpleasant, but mostly people are nice.”

The Conservative candidate said while she was alone on the doorstep, her colleagues were nearby at adjacent properties.

Ms Jones said the man, who she found intimidating, was trying to "shame her" for being a Conservative.

She said: “He was telling me ‘you’re a disgrace, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You consider yourself to be a decent person but if you’re standing as a Conservative you can’t be. You ought to be ashamed of yourself’.

“I didn’t like the way he was trying to intimidate me. He came out and closed his front door behind him and it was just me and him on the doorstep. He was very in my face.

“It’s very disappointing. Everybody in politics is trying to make the world a better place and we have our community at heart. It’s very sad to use that sort of language at all.

“When I tried to reason with him he told me to ‘grow up’ and that what I was talking about wasn’t relevant.

“It did get to a point where I had to tell him that we were going to have to agree to disagree and leave it there because we clearly weren’t going to convince each other. I decided I had to walk away.”

Ms Jones said the man was shaking with anger while he was talking to her and that he slammed the door behind her after she left.

She said that it is the only doorstep “she hasn’t left on a good note”, but that she thinks it was anger directed at the Conservative party in general.

When the former employee of Prince Charles returned home in Brecon she discovered that her garden gate was open and that her campaign signs had been destroyed.

Ms Jones said: “Someone had been onto the property and the signs had not only been ripped down, but they had been ripped apart and thrown into the road.

“The gate was open so I think somebody had been in the garden and nosing around the outside of the house. I think it was someone trying to make trouble.”

Ms Jones had stayed in Cardiff overnight on Sunday as she’d had a family event before going canvassing during the day on Monday and returning home on Monday evening.

She has reported the incident at her home to Dyfed-Powys Police and she said she is confident it was not her who left the gate open.

Ms Jones said: “The signs always get ripped down. Personally it’s not something I’ve ever done to an opponent. It’s sad really. Going onto someone’s property like that is very sad as well.

“It was not a very easy night’s sleep that night afterwards thinking that somebody had probably been in the garden.

“Other than the doorstep abuse and that, I’d say the election campaign has been good. You get a lot of nuisance and harassment on social media but that’s just part of the course. For me it’s that I just don’t want to waste time on people who are not in Brecon and Radnorshire really."

However Ms Jones did praise her political opponents and how they have been through the campaign.

She said: “I will say, my opponents have been really kind and respectful throughout the campaign. I think the vandalism was someone acting on their own agenda.”

Also standing in next week’s general election in Brecon and Radnorshire are Tom Davies for Labour, Jane Dodds for the Liberal Democrats, Lady Lily the Pink for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, and Jeff Green for the Welsh Christian Party.