Plaid Cymru leader urges voters to ‘choose hope over division’

The leader of Plaid Cymru has urged voters to “choose hope over division” as he launched his party’s bid to end three decades of Labour rule in Wales.

Rhun ap Iorwerth is hoping to form the first non-Labour led government in Cardiff Bay since devolution in 1999.

An MRP poll published last week, conducted by YouGov for ITV Cymru Wales, suggested Plaid Cymru remains on course to be the biggest party in May, with Reform the second largest and Labour third.

Mr ap Iorwerth, a former BBC journalist, also launched Plaid’s key election pledges, which include cutting NHS waiting lists and speeding up treatment times, helping families with £30,000 worth of free childcare, improving educational standards and tackling child poverty.

“We will stand up for Wales to get a fair deal from Westminster,” he told supporters at the campaign launch at Bedwas Workmen’s Hall & Institute in Caerphilly.

“May 7 is a historic opportunity to change Wales for the better.

“Labour’s time is up – they are now out of the picture.

“This campaign is a straight choice between Plaid Cymru and Reform, between hope and division, between credibility and chaos.

“Plaid Cymru is the only party with an ambitious and deliverable plan to bring down those waiting times, to raise education standards, to support families with that universal childcare offer, to support businesses and the Welsh high streets, giving them the backing that they deserve.

“Reform are making it up as they go along. They will never make it their priority to do the right thing for Wales and for its communities.”

Plaid launched its campaign in Caerphilly – the scene of its Senedd by-election victory against Labour last year.

“We return here for the launch of our election campaign to the constituency of Caerphilly where history was made five months ago,” Mr ap Iorwerth said.

“Five weeks from now Wales can make history again and that spirit of Caerphilly 2025 can be the spirit that drives us forward to the formation of the first ever Plaid Cymru government for Wales on May 7.

“This is a national mission – this is a mission to transform Wales. The people of Caerphilly embraced that in that momentous by-election of last year.

“Our challenge now is to bring all of Wales with us. And the bar we set ourselves throughout this venture will be high because the people of Wales deserve nothing less.”

Blueprint

He said that Lindsay Whittle’s by-election win in Caerphilly in October last year could be a “blueprint for success in all parts of Wales”.

“A campaign rooted in hope and in tolerance, full of the offers that come with new ideas and new leadership,” Mr ap Iorwerth said.

“Plaid Cymru’s message for the next five weeks to the people of Wales is this: Choose hope. Twenty-seven years of Labour leadership in Wales has held Wales back.

“I have no doubt that our nation has so much untapped potential, and if we have the honour of leading Welsh Government for the next four years, we are determined in Plaid Cymru to unleash it.

“We in no doubt, this is the most important election in the history of devolution.

“I am urging the people of Wales to unite behind Plaid Cymru for the chance of a Government that stands up for Wales in a way we have never seen before.

“May 7 is an opportunity to choose new beginnings for Wales, new ideas, a new energy, a higher level of ambition than ever before.”

Enemy 

Mr Whittle, who won last year’s Caerphilly by-election, told party members that Westminster was the “enemy”.

He cited the closure of the Bedwas Navigation Colliery after the miners’ strike in 1984-85 as an example of Westminster not “caring a jot” about Wales.

“A mine that had more reserve of coal than any other single mine in the whole of Wales, and it was closed on the whim of a government,” he said.

“That’s why I do not trust Westminster government. They are our enemy – they care not a jot about what happens here in Wales.”