Adam Price: Labour’s ‘thin red line’ not enough to protect Wales from Westminster power grab

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price MS has today made the case that independence is “the only way” to protect Wales from a Westminster assault on devolution.

He said that the “thin red line” of powers favoured by Labour was now insufficient to protect against a UK Government “redoubling its efforts” to roll back Wales’ autonomy.

Writing exclusively for Nation.Cymru, Adam Price appealed in particular for independence-supporting Labour members to back his party in the upcoming Senedd election May 6^th.

He said that a Plaid Cymru government would deliver many of the policies they favoured such as extending free school meals, securing a real living wage for care workers and taking more radical action to address the climate crisis, while also holding the line against a UK Government power grab.

“In recent weeks it has become clearer that the UK Government is redoubling its efforts to undermine devolution and wipe Wales off the political map,” Adam Price said.

“Their insistence on draping everything in the Union Jack exposes the panic and insecurity which is taking hold in Westminster as the independence movements in Wales and Scotland gather momentum.

“Labour’s thin red line – the combination of insufficient powers and a reluctance to challenge the Tory UK government – is breaking, leaving Wales further exposed to the worst excesses of Westminster.

“That is why Wales needs a pro-independence government, far bolder in its challenge to the UK Government and far better at banging the drum for our nation’s best interests.

“We know from Scotland’s experience that the more your government is willing to stand up to Boris Johnson and his Cabinet of chaos, the more your voice will be heard.”

‘Real change’

Adam Price said that many Labour supporters were “frustrated” at their party leadership’s reluctance to keep pace with the constitutional debate in Wales.

“They can be confident that a Plaid Cymru government would not only deliver the referendum on Welsh independence that they so desire,” he said, “but also radical social policies – from extending free school meals to a real living wage to care workers to doing far more to tackle the climate crisis – to deliver the vision of a fairer, greener Wales that we share.

“Plaid Cymru is interested in transforming, not tinkering. We are impatient to deliver real change in real-time and will do so with policies designed to make up for the last two decades of drift.

“Independence is the only way to ensure that Wales’ future is in Wales’ hands.

“If we are to raise wages, create a transport system fit for the 21^st century, improve our public services and protect our environment, we must cut ties with a political union which has ignored our needs and held us back for centuries, and finally unleash Wales’s full potential.”