Plaid Cymru needs 'inclusive' rebrand, says study

Plaid Cymru struggles to present itself as an all-Wales party and should think about changing its name, a former SNP MP has said.

Angus Robertson says the party needs a "more inclusive brand" that appeals across the country.

The report proposes that Plaid considers changing its name, saying New Wales Party merited discussion.

Adam Price proposed the name change during his successful campaign in last year's leadership contest.

The former SNP Westminster leader was commissioned by Mr Price to review the party's operations.

In excerpts published in New Nation, a magazine of the Novo Cambria think tank launched by Plaid Cymru, he said: "There should be a more inclusive brand for the party.

"Choosing the name Plaid Cymru Newydd/New Wales Party - as suggested during the leadership campaign - may be one way forward and merits discussion.

"The party must find a strap-line message that speaks to Wales a whole.

"This must project a dynamic, positive and inclusive impulse around renewal."

He said that the close relationship Plaid Cymru has to the language means the party "is seen as solely the party of and for the Welsh language".

"In turn this means that Plaid struggles to reach out to non-Welsh speakers, and because the Welsh-speaking areas are by now geographically confined, Plaid also struggles to present itself as an all Wales party."

This creates a "fundamental dilemma" for the party, he said, with members strongly committed to the language and "its inherent importance".

"In responding to these dilemmas there needs to be a determined effort to craft an image and a message that will find a common appeal across the whole of Wales."