Vote Plaid to stop Reform – Rhun ap Iorwerth
The leader of Plaid Cymru has urged voters in Wales to elect his party next year to “stop Reform”.
Addressing the annual Plaid conference in Swansea, Rhun ap Iorwerth suggested the Senedd elections next May would be a two-horse race between the parties.
There is currently one member of Reform sitting in the Welsh Parliament after Laura Anne Jones defected from the Conservative Party in July.
But recent polling has forecast Plaid and Reform to be the biggest parties in the Senedd next year.
‘Positive change’
Mr ap Iorwerth told the conference: “The time is now to stop Reform and elect a government more radical, more ambitious, more impatient to bring about positive change than any which has gone before it.”
“For (Nigel Farage), politics is a zero-sum game – where Wales is a playground and our parliament a plaything for Reform to try to gain an electoral foothold at the expense of what’s actually in Wales’s interests,” he added.
“Of course, if it wasn’t Reform, it would be someone else – moulded in the image of the divisive right-wing politics which is now a global phenomenon.
“It’s a scourge seen throughout the world, and it’s important to recognise that we’re not immune from its dangers here in Wales.”
‘Politics of hope’
Speaking to the PA news agency, he added: “Reform polling well in Wales tells us that we need to work even harder to make sure that it’s the politics of hope, not undermining and fragmenting society, that we should be pursuing.”
Labour has led Wales since the Senedd was first established as the National Assembly for Wales in 1999.
During that time, Plaid Cymru has worked alongside the Labour government in co-operation agreements across various policy areas but Plaid withdrew from its most recent partnership last year.
A Reform UK Wales spokesperson said: “There is absolutely nothing new about Plaid Cymru.
“Plaid have been part of the Cardiff Bay establishment for the last quarter of a century and have propped up the failed Welsh Labour Government again and again.
“A vote for Plaid is a vote for the same policies that have destroyed the Welsh NHS, destroyed the Welsh economy, and left Welsh communities behind.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Err if Reform win seats next year then they will be part of the Cardiff bay establishment. The difference is Plaid unlike other parties it doesn’t answer to the Westminster establishment.
Plaid may still answer to Labour to keep Reform out and it will be same old. That is if Labour can win a seat.
This is the line Reform are going to spout over the next few months – Plaid part of the old establishment. However, if you look closely at Reform it’s far more a part of the old establishment. Once it was the Brexit party, before that UKIP (though UKIP has reformed again) and before that it was the hard core eurosceptics of the Tory party. The party is also backed by millionaires and billionaires, our true British establishment. It’s time people really looked at this party and realised it is not the saviour they are desperately hoping for.
You will need stronger oats than that, a dozen good reasons and the troops to carry them out, all trained and ready like Swiss army knives, equipped to deal with every brief in a fair and honest way…
A lifelong PC voter, I hope RhapI has a better message than vote for us to stop Reform. Stop feeding the beast. Reform get a free mention in every other party’s statements. Just stop it!
That message isn’t for you, it’s for Labour, Green and Dem voters who wouldn’t normally consider Plaid because they’re comfortable with their normal choice but need to accept these are not normal times and without preference voting tactical voting is unavoidable to keep Reform out. And the lesson from Brexit is that not talking about it and hoping it’ll go away doesn’t work.