Politician and academic Dame Shirley Williams comes to Abergavenny on June 7 to lead an information evening on ‘What the EU has done for us?” at the Priory Centre (7pm).

To give her her full title, Professor The Rt Hon Baroness (Shirley) Williams of Crosby was once forecast to become Britain’s first female prime minister and is one of the leading politicians of her generation.

First elected as a Labour MP in 1964 she served as a Cabinet Member in the Governments of both Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

She was one of the ‘Gang of Four’ rebels who broke away from the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981 and was a co-founder of the Liberal Democrat Party when the Liberals and SDP merged later that decade.

Dame Shirley went on to spend 23 years as a member of the House of Lords before announcing her decision to stand down, at the age of 85, in January this year.

She is the daughter of Vera Brittain, the esteemed feminist, pacifist and author of Testament of Youth - the seminal book stirred by the death of her fiancé, brother and two closest male friends during the First World War.

Vicar of Abergavenny Canon Mark Soady said, “Shirley has had a life of experience as Professor of Politics at Harvard University and as a UK Cabinet Minster and she is well placed to share with us the pros and cons of remaining in Europe. We are privileged to hear her insights into this key question.”