Adam Price: ‘No coalition under any circumstances with Conservatives’

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has said that he would not enter a coalition under any circumstances with the Conservative party, and wouldn’t consider a junior role under a Labour government either.

Speaking to the Western Mail, he said that the political divide between Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives, the second and third largest parties at the Senedd, was unbridgeable.

“I have also made it clear that we would not enter a coalition under any circumstances with the Conservative Party,” he said.

“This is not to be churlish or petty but there is just too big a political divide between us.,” he said.

“Certainly ideologically it has moved to the right quite significantly. It is after all the Conservative and Unionist Party so it would never be a natural ally for us. But now the ideological gulf for us is far too wide, it just wouldn’t work.”

‘Self-determination’

He suggested however that he would be willing to join forces with Labour, but only if Plaid Cymru were the largest party or if it were an equal partnership.

However he “certainly” would not consider it if they were the junior coalition partner as in 2007-11.

“That wouldn’t deliver the level of transformational change we need,” he said. “We have had one party in power for 21 years and it is the oldest slogan in politics – it is time for a change. So I have taken that off the table because it wouldn’t deliver.

“I will give you a hypothetical. If we were short of a majority and Labour were prepared to consider becoming a junior partner to us then obviously we would not reject that out of hand.

“The other scenario is equal partners such as we have seen happen in Ireland. Those options are qualitatively different because you are not in a position of having another party effectively driving the political agenda. Being a junior party in a coalition would not deliver the kind of change that we would need.

“In terms of red lines in any discussions, my experience is that you don’t want to hold those discussions in advance. But clearly from our perspective self-determination is an absolutely critical principle. We would never trade away our principle of self-determination for the Welsh people.”