Former Plaid Cymru Police and Crime Commissioner calls on Adam Price to resign
Siân Williams
Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price should take responsibility for all that has gone wrong on his watch and resign, Arfon Jones told Nation.Cymru today.
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MS Adam Price has been the leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018, replacing Leanne Wood.
Arfon Jones was Plaid Cymru North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner from 2016 until 2021 when he decided to retire.
Prior to this, he represented the party on Wrexham Borough County Council.
Mr Jones said: “At the end of the day Adam is leader and things have happened on his watch. There have been complaints from staff – I’ve heard what everyone else has heard, I don’t know more than that.
“But with everything that’s gone on we have now come to a head and he should now look at his situation and resign as leader.”
On the plus side, said Mr Jones: “Structural changes are happening within Plaid in that we have a new Chair in Marc Jones, and a new Vice Chair in Beca Brown. I know them both well and they’re both progressive and I hope they’ll bring change in the way Plaid Cymru is being run, and make us more effective.
“But I’m unsure whether they can do that if Adam continues as leader, to be honest.”
Disillusioned
A few months after the May 2021 Senedd elections Arfon Jones became so disillusioned that he stopped being a paid-up member of Plaid Cymru. But that could change in the New Year, he suggested: “If Marc and Beca will be able to make the changes I hope they will, then I’d have no problem re-joining the party.”
Adam Price failed to deliver the election results he’d hoped for in May 2021. Plaid Cymru not only lost Rhondda but also failed to take votes off Welsh Labour elsewhere.
However, Plaid Cymru did gain two regional Senedd seats, to which Arfon Jones responds: “Personally, I think that had more to do with the failure of UKIP and Reform UK than it had to do with support for Plaid Cymru.”
Mr Jones says he still doesn’t know what the Plaid Cymru message was going into the 2021 election.
“Our manifesto was more of a novel … I kicked off back then about the lack of strategy and so on. Then it was decided that Dafydd Trystan (academic and former Plaid Cymru Chair) would look into things and write a report. I spoke to Dafydd at the time.
“This report was to be published in September 2021 which is over a year ago now. I’ve never seen it and haven’t spoken with anyone else who has seen it either.”
In May 2020, Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards was arrested at his home in Carmarthenshire on suspicion of assaulting his wife. The MP admitted his guilt and received a police caution.
At the time, a statement was issued saying that his wife, Emma Edwards, was standing by her husband. But earlier this year she said she regretted that statement which had been written not by her, but by a Plaid Cymru press officer.
She told the BBC that she was “appalled” that the suspension was about to be lifted, and that nobody from the party had bothered to make contact with her after the assault.
Failure
Arfon Jones said of Adam Price’s troubles at the helm: “It started off with Jonathan Edwards and his failure as leader to take early action, well truth be told, to take any kind of action, until Emma Edwards came out with her statement. It was that, I think, that forced Adam to tell Jonathan that he could not stand in the name of Plaid. He was slow (to react) and failed to show leadership.”
Fast forward to early November 2022, Mr Jones added: “Now we have Rhys ap Owen (elected South Wales Central region in 2021) suspended from the Plaid group (in the Senedd). There are allegations against him, but we don’t know what those are.”
Then on 16 December, Plaid Cymru issued a statement saying Chief Executive Carl Harris was stepping down. Former Plaid Cymru politician Nerys Evans has been appointed to look into the culture and internal workings of the party.
When pressed to suggest a successor to Mr Price as leader of Plaid Cymru, Mr Jones said: “Delyth Jewell.”
The Plaid Cymru press office has been approached for comment.
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It is now 6.43pm and I am the first to comment on this article.Does this mean that everyone agrees with it? I am afraid I do.
No – it simply meant that you have more free time than other people have.
Jones is right. Price has been a failure. It’s surprised most people, who expected him to shine and lead Wales to an indy future, but he hasn’t got the communication skills needed. Delyth Jewell hasn’t got those skills either, though she would be a strong candidate for the post. Shame ap Iorwerth has his sights on London.
I nominate Sioned Williams, a committed and passionate politician, who is also down to earth, unaffected and even humble. I have been so very impressed with what I’ve heard of her since she was elected.
Jones is right, Price has failed as a leader and whatever his strengths or weaknesses, as leader he is ultimately responsible for the party and its activities. Interestingly, Jones touched on the basic issue – the 2021 Senedd elections. No election strategy, no policies and poor candidates, many of whom were selected at the last minute. Over concentration – again- on list seats to the detriment of winning, or doing well, where it matters: the constituencies. The party had five years to prepare and did nothing. Suddenly the election and the total lack of any realistic policy development shone through.… Read more »
Certainly hope not!!
John, your message has a truth within it but I’m afraid your long antagonism to Plaid blunts your well crafted thoughts and analysis on this occasion.
AP was on top of his game at Westminster- impressing across the chamber.
However the USA and wildness years have blunted some though not all of his instincts.
Communication in a new world of Communication and a lack of interest in the grass roots of Plaid perhaps is balanced with a skill in debate at Cardiff Bay ?
A return to Westminster and a generation leadership jump I guess may be a pathway?
Price is a pathetic leader. Their problem is that they have so few quality personel to replce him, they look likely to limp from one poor leader to the next!
Plaid MP’s are of higher quality, so they should resign and be ” Wales only”. But how can we fund them? Well, by widening the membership so that people on the Right, like myself can join, as well as those ex Plaid in Gwlad (awful name) and elsewhere. Many of these seem to understand how money works. Could the socialists stomach this?
It would mean a new Party name and a Basic line with a common goal.
What do we want in common? How about SUCCESS!
It makes no difference who the leader of PC is because the party is useless just like the Senedd. Since devolution the language is closer to the grave (down 3% since 2001) and the Welsh people, now only 70%, are heading towards extinction in their own country.
You make a valid observation. Its regrettable PC are made up of sentimentalists not strategists, with Welsh labour interested only in appeasing the SE and valley voters. Any credible headway hoped for by PC (and there are very few if any most can spot) has been and is being, exponentially swamped by those settling to escape the ‘other’ place, and who have at best a token interest in any culture except their own. The Welsh in Patagonia included, historically.
When Adam went to study in the USA he went as “Paul”, then returned to Cymru as “Saul”!
If this is a biblical reference I don’t get it.
I think the real Cynan would have understood the meaning- suggest you take a peep at the New Testament my friend …it will widen perhaps your thoughts 💭
Compare the manifesto of Plaid Cymru and Gwlad for 2021. Then decide!
A better comparison is the number of votes and seats in the Senedd each party got in 2021 😉
I think the people did ! Gwlad with their only county members sit with those on Ceredigion Council who are not really well disposed to our nations destiny ..
Mae’r Cytundeb Plaid/Llafur wedi dod â rhai polisïau da i Gymru nawr mae Arfon eisiau rhoi’r rhain mewn perygl? Mae’n swnio ychydig yn dwp i mi
So Arfon Jones ‘might’ decide to rejoin plaid cymru – how good of him (however has the party managed in his absence). Strange he regurgitates his nonsense claim from a year ago that plaid didnt have an election strategy when plaid went into those 2021 elections pledging to hold a referendum on welsh independence if it won the election.
This reinforces the point I made. Yes I believe in independence (as indeed you do, Leigh). However, the reality is that the people of Wales are concerned with the here and now, the nhs, education, employment. Plaid Cymru said nothing about how it would improve or deliver these services, and this matters. Bluntly, independence was not an issue at the election, not least because other than cynically calling for a referendum in the hope of attracting support from Yes Cymru and similarly minded groups, no attempt was made to make the case for independence. This cynical and opportunist call may… Read more »
Fair point regarding people in Wales being concerned about the ‘here and now’ John but youll also know plaid has come in for criticism in recent years for not making its support for welsh independence clearer – i think putting a committment to hold a indy referendum in the 2021 election manifesto addressed those criticisms head on. And with all respect i seriously doubt such a campaign promise has harmed our indy cause, indeed in doing so i think plaid put the issue firmly back on the welsh political agenda. For my own part i think a promise to hold… Read more »
MI5/6 and various special ops groups couldn’t have done a better job of disrupting our movement if they had been involved. The public nature of all of this shows that all involved are concerned with vying for of consolidation of power. No more ideologues, no more ladder-climbers and careerists, a higher bar for public-facing talent.
Plaid Cymru, masters of our own downfall.
You say – “…No more ideologues, no more ladder-climbers and careerists,..”. I suspect that rules out most of the politicians and aspiring politicians in today’s pool of “talent”. This has left us with superficially educated people who are lacking in core skills but have those dubious attributes – the ability to spout rhetoric and adopt postures that have little or no relevance and even less appeal to the ordinary working (voting) people of this country
It’s Europe-Wide?
Adam Price may lack the steel to keep his troops in line, but he achieved a notable political success with the co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government, and he is now more focussed on Welsh issues rather than ‘Leanne-Wood’-type irrelevancies.
What is Holy about “progressive”? Why can’t we have a really “Inclusive” party which will have the object of achieving independence, if YES is not to become a party. Some quite talented people are now “excluded”, which seems to be popular among “progressives”.
Agreed.