Starmer ‘quiet’ on deal with Plaid because it ‘moves Welsh Labour to the left’, says Adam Price

Keir Starmer has been “quiet” about the deal between Plaid Cymru and Labour because it moves the party in Wales “to the left”, Adam Price has suggested.

The Leader of Plaid Cymru took aim at Labour’s Leader in Westminster, who has yet to comment on the cooperation agreement between the two parties, during a discussion with Adrian Masters on the ITV Wales podcast, The New Normal.

Price accused Starmer of “driving the Labour Party to the right” in Westminster, and that the deal struck with Plaid moves the “Labour government in Wales to the opposite direction”.

He also suggested that were Labour to get into government in Westminster it would be “Blairite”, and “essentially embracing a sort of neoliberal political agenda”.

Adam Price said: “We’ve never voted for a majority of Conservative MPs at Westminster but we’ve had a Conservative government for over two thirds of that time I believe. That is the democratic deficit that we’ve faced for over a century and a half, and there are two potential answers to that.

“One is independence, so we’d get the kind of government and the policies based on the values that are substantially different in Wales, and are closer probably to those northern Scandinavian social democratic countries.

“Or you hope for the election of a Labour government at Westminster. Those are the two generic solutions. Now the problem with the second answer is, you’re only going to get it at most a third of the time, so it isn’t really an answer to the question, and yes I can understand why Labour voters in Wales, and by the way I hope there isn’t a Conservative administration re-elected at Westminster at the next election, clearly because that would cause further untold damage to the people of Wales.

“But even if you get the election of a Labour government, A well it’s got going to be there forever and you know you’re going to return to the problem of a Conservative government.

“Even now with all the problems, you know Peppa Pig and all the rest of it, we’re not seeing a significant and substantial Labour lead which would you know, at this point in an election cycle you would expect a much stronger Labour lead. So it’s looking uncertain at the very best that a Labour government will be elected, and furthermore look at Keir Starmer and the way that he’s driving the Labour Party to the right, you know to the centre and to the right wing of his party.”

‘Opposite direction’ 

He added: “Obviously the changes to the Shadow Cabinet etcetera and he’s been very quiet about the Plaid Cymru cooperation agreement hasn’t he, probably because that’s driven the Labour Party and the Labour government in Wales to the opposite direction.”

Adrian Masters asked: “Would you like him to be saying something about it?”

Price replied: “I don’t particularly care what Keir Starmer thinks about it because we’re doing it anyway. We certainly don’t need his permission in Plaid Cymru to do it.

“I think it says, if your hope is the election of Keir Starmer, then that’s a fairly desperate position to be in, in one sense because if that’s the best you can hope for. What? Another sort of Blairite Labour government, not really getting to grips with the fundamental problems, and essentially embracing a sort of neoliberal political agenda. Well that’ll do nothing to actually solve our problems, whereas what we’ve got in the cooperation agreement is a very very significant shift towards a radical programme in terms of the housing crisis, in terms of extending universality in areas of key public services.

“We’re not getting anything like that radical thinking from the Labour Party at Westminster.”