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Llŷr Gruffydd promises to ‘reflect, reform, and renew Plaid Cymru following confirmation as interim leader

13 May 2023 5 minute read
Llŷr Gruffydd MS. Photo Plaid Cymru

Llyr Gruffydd has been confirmed as the interim leader of Plaid Cymru after Adam Price stood down in the wake of a report into bullying, misogyny and harassment in the party.

Mr Price quit as head of the Welsh pro-independence party on Wednesday night days after a damning review found evidence of a “toxic” culture within the group which had particularly let down female staff and discouraged people from speaking out.

The party’s national council, which was meeting in Aberystwyth on Saturday morning, ratified Mr Gruffydd’s appointment after he was nominated by Plaid’s Senedd members.

He is expected to formally take over leadership duties from Mr Price on Wednesday, with nominations for a new permanent leader closing on June 16 and the winner announced in the summer.

Following the announcement, Mr Gruffydd promised to “reflect, reform and renew” the party.

“It is an immense honour for me to be entrusted with the responsibility of leading Plaid Cymru until a new leader is in post in the summer,” he said.

“Despite it being short, my tenure as the interim leader of Plaid Cymru comes at a critical juncture for the party.

“We’ve been reflecting, we are reforming and we will renew our mission in light of the findings of Project Pawb.

“Its findings run counter to our core beliefs and values.

“In our period of reflection we remind ourselves of what Plaid Cymru aspires to be – an inclusive party, a party that values its staff, a party founded on the best principles of progressive action – with fairness and equality embedded in its DNA.

“Accelerating the pace of reform will be the priority for the political, professional and voluntary wing of the party.

“By doing this we can renew our purpose, delivering the key aspects of our manifesto through the co-operation agreement, offering solutions when Wales’ interests aren’t being served and working harder than ever to protect our communities.

“Moving forward, united, we will put down new and stronger foundations with our ambition undimmed.”

No obvious successor

There is growing concern within the party that there is no obvious successor to the permanent leader role.

Among names to be suggested as the next possible leader are Rhun ap Iorweth, the member for Ynys Mon, who is poised to stand as an MP.

Should he still decide to run for Parliament, it would make him ineligible for the Senedd chief seat.

Delyth Jewell MS, who represents the South Wales East region, has also been mentioned, as has Senedd speaker Elin Jones, who has served Ceredigion in the Welsh Parliament since 1999.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Gruffydd confirmed that as interim leader he was not allowed under party rules to put himself forward for the job on a permanent basis and would not publicly be backing any candidate.

“I am not taking up this role because of some personal ambition to be the leader of the party,” he told the PA news agency.

“The fact that I’m now ineligible to do that underlines that I’m doing this up to a sense of duty to the party, recognising that I can and will play a particular role in the interim.

“One of the advantages of being interim leader is that I will in no way, shape or form get involved in that discussion.

“It will be wholly inappropriate for me as the acting leader to express any preference in relation to that.”

Mr Gruffydd said he had not witnessed any of the types of incidents referred to in the report but said some occurred before he was elected to the Senedd in 2011.

“What that tells me of course is that the processes we had in place, not only were they deficient, clearly, but they weren’t even being utilised effectively in the form that they were in,” he said.

“There’s a cultural change that needs to happen around that and there’s been a default maybe in the past to make a formal complaint if there’s an issue.

“If you’re a victim… just passing the buck back to the victim is absolutely not OK and those are the kinds of things that now need to change and I’m confident we’ll change.”

The North Wales MS said Plaid was still 100% committed to the Co-operation Agreement with the Welsh Government.

“I’ve made that clear to Mark Drakeford in an informal discussion that we had a few days ago and he reiterated the points that he has made publicly that the agreement isn’t between individuals – it’s between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru,” he added.

“As far as we’re concerned nothing has changed and we are 100% signed up and committed to fulfilling what we’ve already agreed to do, which is to see the Co-operation Agreement through on its three-year term and to fulfil the policies within it.”


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Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards
10 months ago

Bit late for reflecting, Llyr. Plaid was on the skids after the Left took over, which really meant the feminists. They wanted a party, small enough to control, which would allow them to virtue-signal at public expense. None – none- of this intake did apprentice-time at the coal-face of building Wales and none worked out a route to Indy which we Welsh were likely to take. So we have to start all over again. No bad thing in a way

Cat
Cat
10 months ago

Reflecting is not the answer. Action against misogyny, sexual harassment and bullying is the answer. Its also interesting to see how few people commenting on this issue actually care about those who were subject to this behaviour

Iago Prydderch
Iago Prydderch
10 months ago

Yet again, no names of the accused. How do we even know if these allegations are really true if they don’t name the bullies or sexists!

Frank
Frank
10 months ago

I hope he can be true to his word. Usually, politicians are full of promises until they get elected and then they go through a strange transformation and break all their promises and do sod all.

wayne
wayne
10 months ago
Reply to  Frank

No Chance

wayne
wayne
10 months ago

How can you rebuild when all senior plaid Cymru figures, from branches to Senedd to Westminster are implicated. Make the report public or we will see another cover up like Recommendation item 36 …Re visit report from 2019….Sweep the decks. Stop the smoke and mirrors to much dirt already under the carpet….A clear out is needed.

Glen
Glen
10 months ago

According to a Radio Wales newsreader earlier today his name is Lurr Gruffydd.

Frank
Frank
10 months ago
Reply to  Glen

Some of Radio Wales’ presenters, traffic news, weather forecasters etc. have no idea how to pronounce Welsh words and placenames. A few examples: Brynglass, Pennygare, Aberglazney, Pontardawee, Abertawee, Rhondda Cynon Taff, I could go on and on. Surely it should be a proviso of the job to be able to pronounce these places considering it is the radio broadcaster for Wales.

Neil McEvoy
Neil McEvoy
10 months ago

Young men don’t get a mention in the Deryn report, yet the most serious allegations have been made by young men. Some matters should have been referred to the police, but I’m told in 1 case an apology for a misunderstanding was offered by Plaid. The person presenting as a victim (who I believe) felt unable to go to the police himself. He felt he would not be believed & of course he felt ashamed, though what he described was not his fault . I put him in touch with an organisation specialising in helping victims of serious sexual assault… Read more »

NOT Grayham Jones
NOT Grayham Jones
10 months ago
Reply to  Neil McEvoy

Thank you for shedding a little bit of light onto this whole disgusting episode. The fact this report is being withheld by the Plaid SMs makes the whole thing even more disgusting and they do not appear to have learnt anything. Llyr needs to publish it warts and all and for a proper blood letting to occur. If they do not do so Plaid with never move on.

hdavies15
hdavies15
10 months ago
Reply to  Neil McEvoy

Well Neil you were the lone voice howling in that wilderness while others shuffled around seeking fashionable issues to embrace. Plaid in the Bay blew its remaining vestiges of credibility a long time ago. You were meant to be a sign of a better future but you wanted to pursue real world priorities while others had signed up for all sorts of fantasies and posturing. I suspect that the party may never recover but this is not the fatal blow, just one of a sequence of damaging hits which push it closer to the plughole.

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