By Nick Parry BBC Wales News Online

In Pictures: Howard visit

He started a nationwide tour on Saturday morning by visiting Llanelli, where he spent the first 18 years of his life.

As well as visiting the site of his former grammar school, the leader of the opposition met some familiar faces at a cafe in the town that used to be the clothes shop run by his mother.

He was joined for a cup of tea by 75-year-old Audrey Williams who used to work at the business and had known Mr Howard since he was knee-high.

She surprised him with an old photograph of his parents and introduced him to her two young grandchildren, Carys and Elinor Williams.

Llanelli was my home for the first 18 years of my life and it is wonderful to be back Michael Howard

Mrs Williams said: "I still keep in touch with his mother every week.

"She must be very proud of him. He was always a good boy who was very polite and intelligent, and it doesn't surprise me that he has done so well."

Mr Howard was followed by close to 20 cameramen and journalists as he walked about the main shopping area in the town stopping passers by and introducing himself.

Labour stronghold

He received a generally positive welcome, although the west Wales town is a traditional Labour stronghold.

Mr Howard said: "I owe Llanelli a great deal.

"Llanelli was my home for the first 18 years of my life and it is wonderful to be back.

"The town has changed a great deal and is very different from the time when my parents had their shop."

He was challenged by one reporter who said a straw poll in Llanelli had found only 50% people knew who he was.

But Mr Howard replied: "50% is not a bad start. Now we have got to build on that."

School dinners

Earlier in the morning, Mr Howard visited Coleg Sir G�r which now stands on the site once occupied by his former school, Llanelli Grammar.

There he met one of his first teachers, Jean Pugh, as well as close school friend Emyr Phillips.

"Boys were not allowed out of school at lunch time and we were the only two who ever did it," said Mr Phillips, who runs a local travel agency.

"I never liked school dinners so I would go to the local chip shop and Michael would head home to have lunch with his parents.

"When we got back we would be taken to the headmaster who would give us 100 lines. We did it every day."

He told an obviously delighted Mr Howard: "You have not changed a bit in 47 years."

Mine closures

Mr Howard finished off his Llanelli tour with a visit to the nearby Conservative Club where party activists had gathered from across south west Wales.

During his visit to south Wales, Mr Howard also defended the Conservatives' record over coal mine closures during the 1980s.

He told BBC Wales that the closure of the mines under the government of Margaret Thatcher was "inevitable" and that new industries had been set up in place of the pits.

Mr Howard said: "What happened in those years was inevitable, but the Conservative Government in those years laid the foundations for bringing new industries into south Wales.

"South Wales is still benefiting from those new industries.

"More mines were closed under Labour Governments than under Conservative Governments."