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Senedd 'should work for the people of Wales'

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Neil McEvoy said Welsh devolution "does not have a great story up until now"

The Senedd needs to "build confidence amongst the public" that Wales can run its own affairs, according to the leader of Propel.

Neil McEvoy said politicians in Cardiff Bay needed to make the parliament "work for the people of Wales, instead of vested interests".

Propel supports Welsh independence but Mr McEvoy said Welsh devolution "does not have a great story up until now".

The party is also calling for an immediate end to lockdown restrictions.

Speaking to the BBC Politics Wales programme, Mr McEvoy said prolonged lockdowns "do more harm than good and we're in a position now where the NHS has admitted to be five years behind".

He added: "If we had tried a really severe lockdown in the very beginning, that may possibly have worked.

"But we've had the worst of all worlds, and you have people going through hell right now."

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Propel wants to extract gas reserves in former coal fields in Wales

As part of Propel's "Contract with Wales", the party is proposing to "establish a Welsh national energy company... for conventional extraction of Wales' known gas reserves in former coal fields in order to replace use of foreign, imported gas".

"The billions of pounds of revenue generated will be used to create a sovereign wealth fund and to achieve long-term energy independence through investment in renewable energy," the party adds.

In an interview with Politics Wales, Mr McEvoy added: "The money would, of course, generate jobs, bring back prosperity to some devastated valleys communities but, more than that, could finance a revolution in the production of energy by being 100% renewable in future."

Friends of the Earth Cymru said the extraction of coal-bed methane would "be a dangerous new source of greenhouse gas emissions and increase Wales' climate impacts - with methane over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide even".

Mr McEvoy was elected to the Welsh Parliament in 2016 on behalf of Plaid Cymru, but was later expelled from the party.

Propel is standing candidates in 11 of the 40 constituencies and in all five regions.

Politics Wales in on BBC One Wales on Sunday at 10:15 BST and then iPlayer