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Wales 'suffers double whammy of Labour and weak devolution' SNP conference: Plaid wants to break 'Tory-Labour duopoly'
(about 4 hours later)
Wales is suffering from a "double whammy" of a Labour government and weak devolution, Leanne Wood will tell the SNP conference in Aberdeen. Leanne Wood has told the Scottish National Party conference she wants Plaid Cymru to emulate its success and "break the Tory-Labour duopoly".
The Plaid Cymru leader will say she is determined to lead her party into government at the assembly elections. Speaking in Aberdeen, the Plaid leader said Wales suffered a "double whammy" of a failing Labour government in Cardiff Bay and weak devolution.
Ms Wood will attack Labour's record, accusing First Minister Carwyn Jones's government of failing. She said she hoped to return to the conference next year as first minister of Wales.
She will say Scotland has a nationalist government with a track record of making the most of its powers. Unlike the SNP, Plaid failed to win more seats at May's general election.
"In Wales we have a double whammy: a nation without basic powers and a government that wouldn't have a clue what to do with them," Ms Wood will tell the conference. The party goes into next May's assembly election as the third party in Cardiff Bay, behind Labour and the Tories.
'Change Wales needs' Ms Wood told the BBC that Plaid had "a big mountain to climb", but the result of next year's devolved election was not inevitable.
Plaid and the SNP are long-standing allies. In her speech on Saturday, she said: "In Scotland you have broken the Tory-Labour duopoly and it's our aim to do exactly the same in Wales."
But while the SNP has overtaken Labour as Scotland's biggest party, Plaid goes into next May's devolved elections as the assembly's third party - behind Labour and the Conservatives. To cheers from SNP members, she added: "It's my hope therefore to return to your conference next year and to congratulate you on yet another famous election success, but to do so next time as the first minister of Wales."
Ms Wood will say: "Indeed it is my determined resolution to lead Plaid Cymru into government next May because that represents the change Wales needs - the future our people deserve. A Welsh Labour spokesman said: "Instead of making these pilgrimages to SNP conferences, it would be better for Leanne Wood to stay in Wales and explain how Plaid Cymru are going to pay for all the promises they keep making, including a massive and expensive restructuring of the NHS in Wales.
"It is my hope therefore to return to your conference next year and congratulate you on yet another famous election success and to do so as the newly-elected first minister of Wales." "All these costless pledges explain why people don't trust Plaid Cymru on health and they don't trust them on the economy.
"When Plaid make claims about a lack of progress since devolution, they seem to airbrush their own history in government during that time. It is an odd approach."