Plaid leader to vow ‘transformation’ of Wales in conference speech

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price will set out a new cradle-to-grave vision for Wales as a “caring country” in his Plaid Cymru conference speech on Friday.

In his speech at his party’s annual conference in Swansea this weekend, the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr AM will say that a Plaid Cymru government would lead a “decade of transformation.”

Mr Price will say that “a new determination is needed, not to just manage Wales’ problems, but to fix them.”

The speech has been billed as Mr Price’s first major pitch to voters, 18 months ahead of the Senedd election in 2021, after which Mr Price says he intends to form Wales’ first pro-independence government and become First Minister.

He will outline a new vision of Wales as a “caring country” from cradle to grave, which will include the introduction of:

• Free universal childcare from ages 1 to 3;
• A weekly Welsh Child Payment, similar to the Scottish Child Payment;
• A Job Guarantee for young people
• Social care free at the point of need.

‘Rebuild’

During his conference speech, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price AM will say:

“We’re getting ready to stand on our own two feet. What we want is not a handout but a hand up – the means to heal a broken country: a National Reconstruction programme – a £20 billion fund for Wales, £2 billion a year in a Decade of Transformation.

“We’ll makes Wales not just a great country to grow up in, but a decent place to grow old in. Our new cradle-to-grave promise to the Welsh people will see us finally deliver a seamless National Health and Care Service with social care free to all who need it. If Labour can promise to England what Scotland already has, then why don’t they do it when they are actually in government in Wales?

“You know there is nothing sentimental about the politics of love. Building a good society is going to take hard work. We are, all of us, going to have to work harder and faster to rebuild our economy so we can build our dreams.

“But we can get there.”

Transit

Plaid Cymru have said they will aim to lift up to 100,000 children out of poverty, and the introduction of a Welsh Child Payment and free universal childcare would lift thousands of families out of poverty overnight.

During 2017-18, there were over 200,000 children in Wales living in poverty, and figures released earlier this year by the End Child Poverty Network showed that Wales was the only country in the UK to see an increase in child poverty last year.

Mr Price will say that a combination of free universal childcare and the Welsh Child Payment, the introduction of a Job Guarantee for young people and social care free at the point of need would represent a new vision for a caring country “from cradle to grave”.

He will say that the government he intends to forms in 2021 will engender a new spirit of innovation in every sphere of Welsh life, which includes a commitment to introduce a new 50 km rapid transit service from Treherbert to Pontypool.

Mr Price will tell Plaid Cymru’s conference that the Plaid Cymru government he leads will “have a new vision for a Wales in a new Europe”, and by building a “self-reliant, successful economy, we can share prosperity to all parts of Wales, and become the decent, caring country we know we can be.”