Party leaders home in on key target seats on last day of campaigning before the Senedd elections

Party leaders are homing in on key target seats on the last day of campaigning today before the Senedd election tomorrow.

Labour’s Mark Drakeford is visiting the Vale of Glamorgan, the Conservatives’ top target seat in the election, but one which has been held by Labour’s Jane Hutt in an unbroken run at the Senedd since 1999.

Adam Price meanwhile is in Llanelli, where only 382 votes separated Plaid challenger Helen Mary Jones and Labour incumbent Lee Waters at the 2016 election.

Andrew RT Davies will be heading for the north of Wales where the Conservatives made big gains in 2019, winning seats that are again up for grabs at this election, including Wrexham and the Vale of Clwyd.

Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds will be in Brecon and Radnorshire where the party’s candidate William Powell hopes to defend their one surviving Senedd seat in what threatens to be a historic wipeout for the party in Wales.

Labour

Mark Drakeford appealed to voters with the message “If you value it, vote for it.”

“Now, as we emerge from these most testing of times, we have the chance to stand together once again, and protect the things we value most – for our families, our communities and our country,” he said.

“The election on May 6 truly is unlike any other. It is not just Welsh Labour’s jobs-led recovery on the ballot paper, but the very fabric of the country we have built together over the past twenty years.

“Whether it’s creating thousands of new jobs or free prescriptions, the successful vaccine roll-out or building new schools and hospitals, we need a Welsh Labour Government to protect them.

“And we need a Welsh Labour Government to Move Wales Forward with the ideas and confidence our country rightly demands.

“To create the jobs Wales needs, to get our young people into jobs or training, to pay care workers the Real Living Wage, to make our streets safer and our country greener and more prosperous.”

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price has marked the eve of the Senedd Election by making the case that “a vote for Plaid is a vote for hope” as Wales prepares to go to the polls.

Adam Price said that Plaid Cymru’s belief in Wales’s ability to solve its own problems stood in stark contrast to Labour and the Tories whose “can’t do” attitude always puts Westminster before Wales.

The Plaid Cymru Leader added that his party’s “transformational programme for government” reflected the scale of change and ambition required to rebuild Wales’s economy and public services after the Covid pandemic.

Speaking on the eve of the Senedd Election, Adam Price said: “At this election more than any other, a vote for Plaid Cymru is a vote for hope.

“We refuse to believe that there is anything inferior about Wales that means we can’t thrive like other independent nations around the world.

“In contrast to Labour and the Tories’ ‘can’t do’ attitude and their determination to put Westminster before Wales every time, we believe in our nation’s ability to solve its own problems.”

Conservatives

Expected to join Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies in the Vale of Clwyd will be Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

Andrew RT Davies has said that the Conservatives will “end Labour’s childish political games in Cardiff Bay” and work with Conservative colleagues to deliver a long-term economic recovery right across Wales.

“Our economic plan will enable us to build a better Wales after the pandemic and the bad decisions and missed opportunities of twenty years of Labour Governments,” he said.

“We will deliver more jobs, hope and security for everyone in Wales, starting with the reversal of Labour’s bizarre decision to block a freeport, simply because it was a UK Government initiative.

“Welsh Conservatives will rebuild and rebalance our economy, so that we can level-up across the whole of Wales with new technology, new investment and 65,000 new jobs.

“Only by voting Welsh Conservative this Thursday – on both the Senedd constituency and regional ballots – can we tackle our creaking infrastructure and fragile economy, and create jobs, prosperity and opportunity for people in Wales.”

Liberal Democrats

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds said that her party’s “costed and ambitious manifesto will prioritise Wales’ recovery and enable us to move on from the pandemic.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds said: “At this election people should vote for the future and vote to put recovery first.

“This last year has been tough on all of us. It’s been tough for people’s health and mental health, tough for businesses and tough on learners.

“Welsh Liberal Democrats have presented an ambitious and costed manifesto that will prioritise Wales’ recovery and enable us to move on from the pandemic.”

“We will prioritise job creation, house building, a fair deal for our farmers, increased childcare and create a 24/7 mental health service. This our ambitious vision for Wales.

“We are tremendously proud of our record in government here in Wales over the last five years. Thanks to the Welsh Liberal Democrats children in school today are taught in smaller classes in better funded schools, which achieve better results. This is what one Liberal Democrat in government has been able to do, just imagine what a whole team could achieve.”