Plaid Cymru Does Not Want Voters Who Are “Giving Up On Politics”
Rhun ap Iorwerth during the launch of the Plaid Cymru's General Election campaign (Alamy)
6 min read
The leader of Plaid Cymru has said his party is not for people who are “giving up on politics”, as the Welsh nationalist party seeks to increase their number of seats at the General Election.
Rhun ap Iorwerth was elected unopposed as leader of Plaid Cymru last year, after his predecessor Adam Price stepped down in the wake of a report which detailed failings by the party to prevent sexual harassment and bullying.
Ap Iorwerth told PoliticsHome he has since been trying to shape Plaid Cymru into a more “positive” party – both in terms of tackling a “toxic” internal culture and creating a “new feeling of trust”, but also in terms of its wider offer to Wales.
“I think positively about the future of my country,” he said, when asked what motivated him to pursue a career in politics.
“I'm frustrated about where we are, but confident about where we could be. I want us to be bold enough to be willing to take those levers of change into our own hands.”
He argued that his party is therefore “not interested in selling Plaid Cymru as a vote for people who are fed up of everybody” but instead wants to “sell a positive vision of a party that wants to do things in a different way”.
In ap Iorwerth’s view, Reform UK will be hoping to take advantage of considerable voter apathy in Wales. The right-wing party, which is fielding candidates in every Welsh seat, hopes to target areas along the border with England and across the south Wales valleys – where UKIP and the Brexit Party have previously won considerable support.
“There is a proportion of the Welsh population that find right-wing votes to be appealing as a plague on all of politics in a way,” ap Iorwerth said. But he said that was “not a pool we’re fishing in”.
“Giving up on politics doesn't help, looking for an alternative way forward is what we would appeal to people to do,” he continued.
Plaid Cymru only won four seats in the 2019 general election, and although they are hoping to gain more this year, they face a number of obstacles which are likely to make this a profound challenge.
In ap Iorwerth’s own words, the constituency boundary review has “not been kind” to his party. Reducing the overall number of Welsh seats from 40 to 32, the review has effectively abolished two of Plaid Cymru’s incumbent seats, leaving only Ceredigion Preseli and Dwyfor Meirionnydd. Going into this election, their primary target seats are Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and Caerfyrddin, which are both in areas which were won by the Conservatives in 2019.
As a left-wing party, how will ap Iorwerth try to persuade voters who switched to the Tories in the last election to vote for Plaid Cymru now?
“2019 was a very peculiar election,” he said, adding that many voters had been convinced by “compelling arguments to get Brexit done”.
“What we're seeing now, four and a half years later, is an electorate which I have no doubt are sick and tired of Conservative government… but they're also seeing a Labour Party that's going to come in that doesn't have a particularly clear vision,” he continued.
“I think the situation has changed a lot and Plaid Cymru is in a strong position to take advantage of that.”
The party leader suggested that he had been encouraged by the local election results in England, where Conservatives were “given a thumping” not only by Labour, but by “alternative” parties such as the Greens and Lib Dems.
“Labour will be the next government,” ap Iorwerth asserted, with Labour particularly likely to do well across many of its traditional heartlands in Wales.
“But [voters] don't have to settle, giving that Labour government a huge majority that will allow it to act with impunity where there are other voices.”
Keir Starmer and First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething on Barry seafront on the General Election campaign trail (Alamy)
While Labour is using “change” as a key tagline for their campaign, ap Iorwerth considers the Tories and Labour to have a "fiscal consensus", while he sees Plaid Cymru’s main policy offerings to be reforms to how Wales is funded.
He argued that the Barnett Formula, which is used to calculate funds allocated to devolved nations, has been “out of date for decades”.
“And yet the UK parties are refusing to make the kind of pledges that we need to put that right to fund Wales according to need," he added.
“That is seen also then in a more specific issue, which is the need for Wales to receive consequentials of HS2 rail funding that we haven't been paid and means that we're unable to invest in our infrastructure, rail and other transport here in Wales.
“So funding is at the heart of it, and then giving us the tools to be able to grow our economy, strengthen Welsh prosperity through, for example, devolution of the Crown Estate.
“Neither UK party is speaking to Wales and seemingly understanding what the issues are that we face day to day. We will hold the feet to the fire of whoever has the keys to 10 Downing Street.”
Ap Iorwerth hopes that voters have not only grown “sick and tired” of 14 years of Conservative government in Westminster, but will also look for alternatives to Labour, which has responsibility for devolved areas such as the NHS in Wales, as the party has been in government in the Welsh Senedd since its inception in 1999.
“It is poor management, poor decisions, that has made the situation that the NHS in Wales finds itself in much worse,” the Plaid Cymru leader said.
“What Labour do in Wales, of course, is hide behind the fact that UK Conservative governments have failed to fund Wales as we should be.
“Decisions on modernising and failing to modernise the NHS in Wales are absolutely down to the Labour health ministers that we have had unbroken for 25 years. Of course funding [from Westminster] is important, but they make the decisions.”
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will face each other for their first TV General Election debate on ITV on 4 June. But it appears likely they will not go on to debate the leaders of smaller parties, with some former strategists arguing that this would feel like a “distraction” for Starmer when Labour are so far ahead in the polls.
Ap Iorwerth told PoliticsHome that it would be “fundamentally undemocratic” for Starmer and Sunak to not engage with him and other leaders in a televised debate.
“I'm fed up with elections like this being pitched as just a two horse race,” he said.
“It undermines the ability of the electorate in Wales and across the UK to genuinely measure the parties against each other, and to give political parties an equal platform.”
The Plaid Cymru leader said he would take part in a debate even if the two main leaders were not present: “Plaid Cymru always has to fight for political platforms. Already in this election, we've had to turn to major platforms and say you've forgotten us.”
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