Plaid Cymru: Welsh independence 'would remove Tories forever'

Independence would rid Wales of the Conservatives "forever", Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has told his party's conference.

He said the next Tory prime minister should be "the last Tory ever to rule over Wales against Wales' wishes".

He also called for Labour to stay away from Plaid heartland seats at the next election.

He also referenced a "difficult summer", alluding to Jonathan Edwards, an ex-Plaid MP who assaulted his wife.

Plaid Cymru also announced a plan to cut energy prices, freeze private rents and make public transport cheaper.

Mr Price called it a "socially just and instantly deliverable" way to help with the cost-of-living crisis.

Following Liz Truss's resignation as prime minister, Mr Price said Conservatives have "no mandate, no credibility and no legitimacy left".

Plaid Cymru has three MPs at Westminster and 13 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Parliament, where it is in a co-operation agreement with Labour.

The Conservatives are the second largest Welsh party at Westminster, with 13 MPs.

Attacking the chaos that engulfed the Conservative UK government this week, Mr Price said: "Enough is enough, because the fall-out of decisions taken by Number 10 - the office of budget irresponsibility - goes beyond the money markets.

"Make no mistake, the cuts are coming - ripping through, not trickling down into our public services."

He told conference that, like Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, "I also detest what the Tories represent".

"The mask has slipped, the nasty party is alive and kicking the working class every day." he said.

Mr Price called for the "first and hopefully last act" of the next prime minister to be calling a general election.

"Better still, let's make this next Tory PM the last Tory ever to rule over Wales against Wales wishes.

"That's the choice at the next election in Wales, getting rid of them for a few years with a UK Labour government or getting rid of them forever with independence by voting for Plaid Cymru."

He told party members at Venue Cymru that the co-operation deal, which includes expanding the Welsh Parliament to 96 members, "will give us a Senedd that looks like a parliament of a soon-to-be-independent nation".

Making the case for the deal, he said Wales "only truly wins when Plaid Cymru is a player on the pitch".

"Let us be proud of being incubator and instigator of Cymru's ideas. Time and time again by staying true to our values we have to remind Labour of their own. We change the future, and they change their minds."

Mr Price said if Labour wanted to stop the Tories "then don't send your leader and minibuses of canvassers to Ceredigion and Caernarfon like last time when they can be more usefully employed elsewhere", referring to seats it holds in the west and north of Wales.

"You rebuild your broken red wall," he said.

Mr Price made the case for an independent Wales, saying it would "do a better job of providing to our citizens the basics of a decent life".

He announced a "future Cymru forum" with the Wales Green Party to develop the argument that would "consult, research and develop a ground-breaking body of work".

• Reverse the October energy price rises to a cap of £1,277 for average usage and extend the cap beyond next April
• Increase universal credit by £25 and uprate all benefits in line with inflation
• Freeze rents in the private rental sector and ban evictions this winter as a first step to rent controls
• Freeze rail fares for 2023, sell more off-peak tickets at half-price and cap bus fares at £2
• Provide free school meal to all secondary school pupils, starting with children in families receiving universal credit

The leader said it could be a second phase to the co-operation agreement, and the plan was fully costed - none of which had been published on Friday afternoon.

Asked how he would pay for it, Mr Price said "we need to reprioritise within the budget".

Mr Price said the summer had been "difficult" for Plaid Cymru and himself.

The comment appeared to refer to the row over Mr Edwards, the now-independent MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr who was readmitted to Plaid Cymru after assaulting his wife.

He has since left the party after his wife and Mr Price publicly called for him to resign.

"Though our party aspires to change society, we are also a product of it: Reflecting and, unless we are vigilant, reproducing its inequalities, its systemic injustices, its unconscious biases, and deep-seated prejudice," he said.

In the Senedd, Labour holds 30 seats, and forms the Welsh government, while the Conservatives have 16 and there is one Liberal Democrat.

Next month Plaid will enter the second year of a three-year co-operation agreement with Labour ministers.

The deal covers a series of policy areas, including extending free school meals to all primary school pupils, allowing local councils to introduce tourism taxes, making changes to council tax and expanding the Senedd.

In conference on Friday, party members passed a motion calling for the Welsh government to draw up legislation to ban so-called 'conversion therapy for all LGBTQ+ people, including transgender and genderqueer people.

The motion's proposer, Joshua McCarthy of the party's youth wing Plaid Ifanc, acknowledged previous rows on trans rights in the party.

He said the youth section had "lost dedicated members before" and the motion aimed to rebuild "the confidence for people in our party that they are safe, that they are welcome".

Last year, Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate and former Bangor mayor, Owen Hurcum, who is non-binary, quit the party.

They told the Daily Post that "many members" had also left.

Referring to the motion, Mr Price in his speech said: "I say again there is no place in society, our party, or our country for this kind of hate. We are LGBT+ inclusive - and the T is not a debate."

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