Plaid Cymru and SNP to join forces
Emily Price
The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have pledged to join forces in a bid to ensure that Westminster respects the wishes of both Wales and Scotland.
Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth will meet in Bute House in Edinburgh on Thursday (October 30) to discuss their new partnership.
The meeting will provide the opportunity to discuss shared areas of interest including the cost of living crisis, the forthcoming UK Government Budget and the relationship between Scotland and Wales.
The pair have pledged to work together to offer a “positive alternative” to Westminster’s “race to the right” to keep up with Nigel Farage.
Both leaders have highlighted the potential for a progressive alliance between Scotland and Wales to ensure that the UK Labour Government respects the wishes of both nations.
Child payments
The pair will also discuss the SNP Government’s action to tackle child poverty including the transformational Scottish Child Payment.
The monthly payment worth £27.15 a week is unique to Scotland and over 300,000 children are said to be benefiting from it.
Earlier this year Plaid announced it would create a similar child payment pilot in Wales if the party came to power at the next Senedd election.
Recent polling has revealed that May’s Welsh election will be a two horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.
Analysis in Scotland published shows that the SNP would secure a majority if the Holyrood elections were held today.
Alliances
The Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties have formed alliances before.
In 2001 the two parties pooled their resources to create a “Celtic alliance” in Westminster making them the largest opposition party after the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Ahead of the meeting, Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “I am looking forward to meeting with the First Minister of Scotland John Swinney to discuss our shared vision for the future of our nations.
“A Plaid Cymru Government would be eager to adopt best practice from around the world when it comes to adopting policies to improve people’s day-to-day lives and where better to start than with one of our closest allies in Scotland.
“The Scottish Child Payment is a radical and exciting policy which we are committed to introducing as a Welsh pilot should Plaid Cymru form the next government in May.
“Thanks to measures like this, Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty rates are set to drop in the coming years. I want that to be the case in Wales too.
“We have a genuine opportunity to show the power of progressive politics through close and continued cooperation between Scotland and Wales.
“With an SNP Government in Scotland and a Plaid Cymru Government in Wales next May, our nations will have the strongest voices possible that Westminster can simply no longer ignore.”
Bills
Scottish First Minister John Swinney added: “The Westminster status quo is not working – bills are going up, people are struggling, and the UK Labour Government’s answer is racing further and further to the right to keep up with Nigel Farage.
“That is not a status quo I am willing to accept – and I will be delighted to work with my friends in Plaid Cymru to show the people of Scotland and Wales that there is a positive alternative to Westminster’s despair and decline.
“Our vision is of a society in which we support people with the cost of living rather than leaving them to languish while the rich get richer. And where we lift children out of poverty, rather than pushing them into poverty with policies like the Two Child Cap.
“We can make clear that a better future is possible – and that comes with the fresh start of independence.”
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I bet they won’t discuss the Barnet Forumla
Good point! Rhun has a pop at the FM for not using her partnership in power enough
Plaid and the SNP obviously aren’t going to have the same mutual interest on absolutely every issue and, partly because of that, they haven’t always worked together as closely as they should. But, on current polling, it’s clear that together they could start to exercise some real clout. Hopefully Rhun and John Swinney have the maturity to use that. I’m sure Labour will absolutely hate it.
‘I bet they won’t discuss the Barnet Forumla’
That’s a ploy that Labour will play in the old imperial divide and rule game
The Cymry/Welsh and the Scots had better make a move quickly for independence before the current English invasion of both countries gains more momentum and overtakes the population of the natives. Where I live we are surrounded by know-all incomers who have moved here because of cheap housing, free prescriptions and a much better quality of life. Our surgeries and hospital outpatient departments are flooded with incomers. Increasing child allowance will only attract more of them.
The incomers that constantly bang on about “respecting cultures” then destroying ours?
The incomers are mostly people who bang on about “other ethnicities ought to speak tip top English to earn their place” yet they come to Wales and wave 2 fingers at the Welsh language. Time to tailor any welcome to their patterns of behaviour
Yn gwmws.
apparently Wales has around 21% of english incomers and Scotland around 8% not large numbers but you can certainly tell the difference.
Perhaps others such as Mebyon Kernow and the Yorkshire Party will join an alliance to defund Westminster.
I cannot get over the amount of people i hear with English accents London and South east of England in the Pontypridd Area and these are not retired people most live on Welsh council estates even their kids speak with English accents some are really mouthy
They should then send their children to the Welsh Medium schools in the area.
Problem families being shipped here from all over England and our councils accepting money to house them that’s on top of all the ones who are piling over here to get out of England. It’s about time it’s being spoken about putting tremendous pressure on our public services.
Is this really happening at scale? Which councils are sending them and which are receiving them? Is this a permanent arrangement? If this is against the will of the families who want to stay in the area they grew up in and have friends and family it’s forced migration and people trafficking.
Great point. Does anyone know the name of this scheme/programme that enables problem families to move between local authorities please?
Your dislike of incomers makes you sound horribly like a Reform supporter (your comments are almost word for word Robert Jenrick if you swap “hear English accent” for “see brown face”). I am one of those accents you hear. You probably don’t care that I speak Welsh (sorry, with an Essex accent!), that my children went to a Welsh school or that I vote Plaid. To you I’m just another foreigner.
No. You are one of the very few who have bothered to integrate. Next time you bump into Dai Ponty speak to him in Welsh. Give him a pleasant surprise. Test his own fluency in the language.
Good man. I live in Sutherland I am now the only Scot in my village the other died a couple of years ago. All my friends are English, good people just wanting a better life with space to breathe. Unfortunately, none of them support independence even though they recognise the benefits of living here. They say, ‘we just don’t want to lose you’ others think of us as a region. It’s complicated, but hopefully if we grab independence now we can all benefit
Don’t worry, there are a fair few incomers that do support independence. It’s a bit of a mixed bag and there’s a bit of a conversion that goes on. The longer they stay in Wales, the more they see how England behaves towards Wales and the more they start to think “what it’d be like if…”
You have taken out of all context it was an observation first off you are better than me because i do not speak Welsh i used to pick my Grandson up from the Welsh school there was 2 English families 1 with Yorkshire accent and one with London accent both speaking Welsh to the teacher which put me to shame again i say just an observation nothing like Farage mob thank you and i have English relatives
lmao the “I can’t be racist my cousin/friend is black” card? Really?
I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here, but it’s really funny how you’re ticking the racist Reform voter bingo card.
Here here!
About time. As a Scot I have always felt we should work together. This is great news. Lee Waters does make a valid point though, Wales does very badly out of the Barnet arrangement, but remember this is a UK mechanism – it is imposed neither Scotland nor Wales really got much of a say on it. Do we get much of a say on anything? Scotland used to have 71 MPs now we have 59. Wales used to have 40 now 32 and there’s 650 seats in WM – they aren’t going to increase our representation and with all… Read more »
Good move. Those who care about social justice should join forces to put pressure on any Government that thinks it has become an inconvenient luxury
This is great news! Recently we had a fine example of Plaid & SNP cooperation at Westminster when SNP MP Dave Doogan tore into selfservative Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens after Welsh Labour’s humiliating Caerphilly bi-election loss. He also attacked her abject failure to fight for Wales interests by accusing her of abandoning her country. Never a truer statement made by John Doogan. But isn’t it ironic that we have Scottish Nationalist MPs fighting for Wales interests in London. It’s far more than our pathetic Wales Labour MPs have ever done in their sorry history at Westminster. And how patronising was… Read more »