Plaid hits back after Kinnock says party offers ‘same poison’ as Reform
Nation.Cymru staff/agencies
Plaid Cymru has accused Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock of insulting former Labour voters after he claimed the party and Reform UK offered Wales the “same poison”.
Mr Kinnock used his speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool to attack both parties, accusing Plaid of “separatism” and Reform of “plastic patriotism”.
He said both sought to build “walls between people and communities” and argued that their message was that people were “safer alone”.
Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts responded by saying Labour should examine why it lost so much support at May’s Senedd election rather than attacking those who switched parties.
Labour suffered its worst Senedd election result in May, winning 11.1% of the vote and nine of the expanded parliament’s 96 seats after 27 years in government.
Plaid won the election with 35.4% and 43 seats, ahead of Reform on 29.3% and 34 seats.
Mr Kinnock told delegates: “Before the May 7 election, Plaid were silent on their obsession with separatism, but now their true colours are shining through.
“They say ‘let’s build walls, let’s look inward, keep Welsh power confined to Welsh borders’, and Reform are no better.
“All they ever want to do is build walls between people and communities.
“They stoke division and they tell you that your neighbour is the problem – and they may offer an arresting narrative on Facebook, but I spy some plastic patriotism, funded by crypto billionaires, egged on by foreign powers waging war on Europe and on our values.
“But conference – Wales is a nation of dragons. We are not Putin’s parrots.”
He said Plaid and Reform “offer the same poison” by suggesting “you’re safer alone”, adding: “But that’s a lie, and it’s not who we are in Wales.”
His comments came a year to the day after then-first minister Eluned Morgan described Plaid and Reform as “different poison, same bottle”.
‘Throwing insults’
Ms Saville Roberts said: “When Stephen Kinnock says Plaid Cymru and Reform ‘offer the same poison’, he’s insulting the many thousands of former Labour voters who chose Plaid Cymru in May.
“Instead of throwing insults, Labour should reflect on why so many people chose positive change after 27 years of Welsh Labour rule.”
Plaid cited post-election YouGov analysis which it said showed 39% of people who voted Labour at the 2021 Senedd election switched directly to Plaid in May.
The latest YouGov/Barn Cymru polling for ITV Cymru Wales, conducted earlier this month, put Plaid on 32% in Senedd voting intention, Reform on 27% and Labour on 13%.
The same polling showed a stronger recovery for Labour when voters were asked about Westminster, with the party on 18%, one point behind Reform and nine points behind Plaid.
Devolution
The row came as Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates used his first UK Labour conference speech since taking the job to call for a new phase of devolution, with more power moving from Cardiff Bay to local communities.
Ms Saville Roberts questioned why Labour had not pursued that approach during its 27 years in power in Wales.
She said: “So when Ken Skates now argues that power should be moved out of Cardiff Bay and into local communities, people are entitled to ask why Labour waited until it lost power to discover the virtues of decentralisation.
“Labour can keep attacking the choices voters made in May, but that won’t rebuild trust. The challenge for Labour is to understand why so many people wanted change.
“The challenge for Plaid Cymru is to deliver it, and that is exactly what we are focused on doing.”
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Even less qualified to opine than Blair
How dare he? absolute ******…
Three pink snooker balls blocking Cymru’s renaissance, must be the new toothbrush tash…
Hmm, six letters, let me guess. Rhymes with anchor!?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right: stupidity is a moral defect rather than an intellectual one.
Like father like son
More like hies anti-Welsh mother some would say.
Reform are poisoned by hate and racism against people of colour and Muslims.
This kinnock clown is useless at supporting Wales in any meaningful way and his lack of judgement is evident in his words by equating Plaid and reform.
If he cared for the plight of Cymru, he would have devolved crown estates to Wales and proposed a better alternative to the Barnet formula. He has done neither.
Unionism is British nationalism; Unionists are British nationalists. So ridiculous for Labour politicians to berate Welsh ‘nationalists’ while conveniently ignoring their own nationalism.
If Westminster hasn’t learnt the lessons of the tea party or the potato famine by now it never will.
If Kinnock is so concerned about nationalism putting up walls between countries, then why has Labour ruled out rejoining the EU, or even the Single Market? There is a fundamental difference between the civic nationalism advocated by Plaid Cymru and the nationalism of the far right advocated by Reform UK. Plaid wants closer European integration and supports international cooperation. Reform wants to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, whilst some of its members have spewed pro-Russian propaganda. You don’t have to support Welsh independence to recognise that these are two very different political movements. Comparing Plaid and Reform… Read more »
This appears to be Labours attack line, Ken skates was saying similar in an interview last week.
This is epic political stupidity – as stupid as some of the things Labour in Westminster did in the months before the Senedd election that led me to conclude they were trying to lose as emphatically as possible. (“Be grateful for £43m rail funding” and all the “no’s” to things Labour were in favour of in opposition.)
I would be intrigued to know whether it was agreed with Burnham’s inner circle.
Stephen Kinnock is a d*ckhead.
Same as Chris Bryant.
They have both disgraced themselves in supporting varying types of Unionist intimidation and both supposedly ‘Welsh’.
Another problem with Chris Bryant is that *none* of the people he’s governing had the chance to vote on him
The British Labour Party has no democratic legitimacy over there.
A fraudulent attempt to conflate Plaid Cymru with Reform when they could not be more separate in terms of ethos illustrates how terrified the Labour Party is of losing Welsh seats to Plaid at the next general election. Give voters something positive to vote for, not a bogeyman to vote against. It’s an insult to our collective intelligence.
Britnat Stephen Kinnock shouldn’t throw stones, given his father’s pernicious record in office as a politician.
All that Baby Kinnock wants is a return to the two party system. Labour one day. Tories the next. The happy merry go round. He can cope with that. The Westminster Union intact. House of Lords one day like Daddy. And that is the real poison.
What an absolute bloody disgrace. Sit this guy down for an hour and make him read through a list of life threatening anti human abuse filth out of the mouths of Deformees then ask him to point us to where we can find similar filth spouted by Plaid members. He cannot even possibly believe himself.
Wow, he really does spout as much hate and vitriol towards Wales as his treacherous father.
But still, we need him to keep doing stunts like this. Labour can euthanise their party in England, just as they have done in Wales.
Wales suffers from a lack of seriousness. Plaid and Reform both draw their support from gut feel identity politics which seeks to divide. Neither of these parties are interested in actually governing Wales well.
You were misinformed.
You speak utter rubbish. Yes, that accusation could be levelled at Reform UK, a party which, in its previous guises as UKIP and the Brexit Party, treated the Senedd & EU with contempt and had no interest in participating in Cardiff Bay, Strasbourg or Brussels—but not at Plaid Cymru. It shows your ignorance and complicity. Plaid Cymru, on the other hand, the four months in office as Welsh Government have done more for Wales than Labour and the Conservatives ever have.
By now, it should be clear that the established role of the “Welsh Secretary” is be Westminster’s troll-in-chief against the Welsh Government.
Well the English Labour party has often barked like reform since gaining office. So if they can’t see their own issues, how can you trust their views on anything. Plaid is the most distant from Reform ltd.
Anti Welsh – Just like his Dad.