Adam Price to quit as Plaid Cymru leader
Martin Shipton
Adam Price has agreed to step down as the leader of Plaid Cymru, we have been told.
It is understood that he wants to leave the post at once, but that others are wanting a more organised handover.
Mr Price’s departure follows the publication last week of a report that said the party had failed to deal with a toxic internal culture where sexual harassment had been tolerated.
In the wake of the report’s publication, former Labour Cabinet Minister Ken Skates said that the cooperation agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru should be ended because Plaid was now a tainted brand.
At first Mr Price resisted calls for him to resign, saying it would be irresponsible to walk away.
But pressure has mounted and an emergency meeting of the party’s Senedd group took place after Tuesday’s plenary session.
One source said Mr Price had been told to resign by party chair Marc Jones, a Wrexham councillor.
Mr Price has been seen as one of Plaid Cymru’s brightest stars.
He was first elected to Westminster for his home constituency of Carmarthen East & Dinefwr in 2001, winning the seat from Labour.
He quickly became a force to be reckoned with at Westminster, exposing how Tony Blair’s government had favoured the Indian steel magnate and Labour donor Lakshmi Mittal at the expense of the Welsh steel industry. Later Mr Price was at the forefront of the campaign to impeach Prime Minister Blair over what he convincingly argued was the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Harvard
Unusually for a politician he took a voluntary career break for six years, excelling as a student at Harvard University before being elected to the then National Assembly in 2016.
Two years later he was elected as party leader, defeating Leanne Wood, the incumbent.
He announced a plan to win independence for Wales in about 10 years, but it was dependent on Plaid leading the Welsh Government following the Senedd election in 2021.
Instead, Labour won the election easily and retained power, largely because of the perception that First Minister Mark Drakeford had led the nation well during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Labour’s success also crushed any hope of Plaid joining it in coalition, with Mr Price as Deputy First Minister.
In recent months the party has been mired in allegations of sexual harassment and bullying.
It will now have to elect a new leader.
It is understood that a joint meeting of Plaid’s Senedd group and the party’s national executive committee will take place on Wednesday.
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Penderfyniad call iawn ond yn llawer rhy hir yn dod.
Would someone in the know like say who the front runner is, or the front runners are?
Senior members all have tainted hands. All of them have played a part in the failure. The rotten barrel needs cleansing by fire. When you have a rotten apple it effects all the other apples in the barrel, and the barrel is unfit for further use.
RHUN AP IORWERTH
LLYR HUWS GRUFFYDD
DELYTH JEWELL
These are the realistic option candidates in my estimation. In that order too. Try to convince me otherwise.
Out of interest of for purposes of research, do we know who among the assembly members of the Plaid group were supporters of Adam Price?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Plaid_Cymru_leadership_election
They’ve all got dirty hands, they knew what was happening and failed to stand up and be counted. Not a good CV for leadership.
One or other of the Plaid group in the Senedd has to become leader.
Rhun ap Iorwerth and Sian Gwenllian are co-deputies who could co-lead until the leadership contest??.
Rhun ap Iorwerth might not run, as he is standing down from the Senedd Ynys Môn seat, to stand for the Ynys Môn seat at the 2025 UK General Election.
Less to this than meets the eye, I reckon.
Look out for the young ambitious stags after herd like Luke Fletcher and Lee Waters…
Who do you fancy Mr Shipton?
I fancy Delyth for leader…
Rhun and Liz are both spoken for…
Llyr is perhaps next in line…
Or maybe the ‘Nepo Baby’ Mabon who is, I think, doing a good job…
Mabon probably the best representative politician of the lot. Guy really cares about his costituency, promotes its interests and takes a keen and detailed interest in wider national issues such as housing and yr iaith.
Mabon it is from the men and Delyth for the ladies then, I canvassed for his Taid in 1959 (aged 7 I was leafleting) so it would give me some satisfaction…
A First Minister from my part of the country would be a nice change but that is just wishful thinking sadly…
The current slate of prospective party leaders send a cold chill up my spine.
You were 71 in 1959 and out canvassing ? How many times have you been recycled since MM ? What’s the secret, pass it around. Bytholwyrdd yn amlwg.
Saith Seven I was leafleting both for Plaid and my dad, but there was a gang that shared the town hall and he had no chance, pity he would have made a good councillor. So I was told many years later by someone he had helped privately… There was a generation of men and women when we were kids (our parents) who had fought a war and seen and endured terrible things for several years but we were constantly encouraged by our leaders to prepare for the next… I stood alone in the middle of Dyfi Forest surrounded by thousands… Read more »
I also think Mabon. He’s the new kid on the block though…
o dear now the fighting becomes open warfare.
With Adam Price having ruled out a return to the party for Jonathan Edwards MP last August it will be interesting to ask leadership candidates in selection hustings if they will hold or reverse this position. At the Plaid Cymru Chair hustings at Llandudno in October 2022 I asked candidates Ellen ap Gwynn and Marc Jones if they would oppose or support any potential future return to Plaid for Mr Edwards. It is fair to say that my question had a mixed response.
We know that Elen ap Gwyn favours forgivness,it would be suicide for Marc Jones to do so.
Elen ap Gwyn should be consider part of the proiblem
I smell a palace coup sadly led by WhatsApp and ambitious young politics graduates. Adam Price has been looking quite ill for a while and is clearly not getting the support he needs to do his job. Opportunistic when Plaid knows that Rhun is committed to winning Ynys Mon away from the Tories. Mr Shipton said when he joined nation.cymru only a few Bank Holidays ago “the primary responsibility of any news outlet is to keep readers informed of how decisions made by the powerful have an impact on their lives.” Maybe he also thinks his job is to sow… Read more »
Martin Shipton had nothing to do with Price’s demise, which has been apparent for years. Ineffectual, weak, focusing on in tersectionality rather than important things; out of touch with voters, not showing leadership, not standing up for colleagues who have been bullied out of the party and invisible in his constituency
It could be 99% what you suggest here, followed by a little 1% shove at the end from Skater boii, the ousted malcontents (who don’t actually want independence like, despite his myriad flaws, Adam Price does) and Martin Shipton and Theo Davies Lewis’ justified opinion pieces/hatchet jobs (perspective dependant). The wholesale acceptance of this report without actual scrutiny worries me – either it’s an underhanded way of staging a coup or the contents are so egregious that the political and media class in Wales are willing to give the bare bones and allow for some sacrificial lambs to distract. Either… Read more »
This is nothing more than a plot to get Plaid Cymru’s ‘Jewell in the Crown’ elected as leader. If the party is serious about the allegations then they need to remove all of the executive committee who knew about them and covered them up. Plaid Cymru are as corrupt as the other parties.
Who was it that said politics is an aphrodisiac for use by unattractive men and a route to power, wealth and influence for those without scruples?
The Dictionary, I believe
Sure that LW is rubbing her hands…after all her acolytes are pulling strings and happy to oust whoever challenges them
Gill, I think you have put your finger on the main issue here. Leanne Wood and her band of sycophants have emanated such toxins throughout the period of Price’s leadership, so as to make his task far more difficult than it might otherwise have been. This fact dawned on me gradually, but emerged in full during interviews with Wood last year, when she was still moaning about the supposed underhand way in which she was ousted, way back in 2018! She said that her friendship with Price was ruined, and it was clear that the changeover from her tenure to… Read more »
So Labour gains in both Welsh and UK general elections,and let us hope the rot is confined to Carmarthen East & Dinefwr.
Do you think that people will vote for a Black Adder, Conservatives, or Fork Tongued Viper, Labour, a Plaid Cymru Cobra. Is it time to change the players on the Political field.
Can a Leopard change it’s spots. 82 Recommendations indicates endemic failure.
If this is true and Adam Price is to resign as leader of Plaid Cymru at least he unlike racist misogynist bigoted Boris Johnson didn’t hang on with his teeth & nails to power before being forced out. At least he will leave with his reputation intact and have the moral high ground. And I think any replacement as leader should either MS Rhun Ap Iorwerth or MP Liz Savillle-Roberts. We need a nationalist party to fight Wales corner in the Senedd and at Westminster because no one else will. Welsh Labour has no national aspirations other than maintaining our… Read more »
Johnson had the most diverse Cabinet ever, the most wwomen ever and the second youngest ever.
But don’t let reality stand in your way.
No-one’s disputing that but it has dim byd to do with Y Cymro’s reference to Johnson’s response to his unpopularity after the exposure of his misbehaviour during the lockdown.
They did however have one thing in common…they were working for a lying criminal and were more than willing to pillage and trash this country under Fat Shanks’ corrupt leadership
My guess is Price will be gone by the end of the week. The sooner the better, IMO. But I think the rot in Plaid goes deeper than that, and whoever steps up to lead next is going to have to show they can make real changes. Price has a reputation for avoiding the rank and file, and being inaccessible to ordinary party members. Well, this is where relying on his inner circle of supporters and advisors has got him. If Plaid is going to recover from this, Price needs to go, and his coterie too.