Labour MP likes post saying a ‘totally devolved country would be a disaster’

A Labour MP has liked a social media post that claims that a “totally devolved country would be a disaster”.

Chris Bryant, the MP for the Rhondda, liked the post on his Facebook page, which was a response to his criticism of Plaid Cymru for wanting to “split the UK”.

His Labour colleagues in the Welsh Government have been calling for constitutional reform and want to see the UK move to a federal system where the Senedd is sovereign, not the Westminster parliament.

Bryant shared an endorsement of Labour Senedd candidate Elizabeth Williams by Leanne Parsell, who claims to have voted for Plaid Cymru in the past.

Parsell said she was voting for the Labour candidate because she had been given a “British Empire Medal” for work in communities.

On His Facebook page, Chris Bryant said: “Disappointed to see that Plaid’s main policy this year is to split the UK, lots of local Plaid voters in the Rhondda have told us that we’re much better off remaining part of the UK!”

Bryant liked a response by Rhys Griffiths, which said: “Me too, am Welsh but British. A totally devolved country would be a disaster.”

Chris Bryant has previously told ITV politics show, Sharp End: “I don’t get the impression from people in the Rhondda that there’s any clamour for Welsh independence. If anything people are furiously opposed to it.

“There are lots of people locally who feel that Cardiff Bay sometimes is as distant as Westminster.

“The idea that the solution to the real historic and endemic problems in Valleys seats like the Rhondda is yet another round of referendums and constitutional reform I think is utter nonsense and childish.”