Vote Plaid to stop Reform, says party leader

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 Welsh Parliament 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.

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.”

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.”