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New Plaid Cymru leader vows to guide Wales to independence New Plaid Cymru leader: no-deal Brexit could hasten Welsh independence
(about 4 hours later)
The Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru has a new leader after the former MP Adam Price ousted Leanne Wood from the post. The newly elected leader of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru has said that a no-deal Brexit would lead to economic disaster for Wales and could strengthen the case for independence.
Price, 50, insisted in his victory speech that Plaid could win the next assembly election, in 2021, and lead Wales to independence. Adam Price, in an interview with the Guardian after replacing Leanne Wood as leader on Friday, said he backed the idea of a people’s vote on Brexit and that a “remain” option should be on the ballot paper.
The miner’s son paid tribute to Wood, the first woman to lead the party and a popular figure on the UK stage after she called out the then Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, during a general election leadership debate. But if a no-deal Brexit did bring about an economic crisis it could prompt more people in Wales to come to the conclusion that independence from Westminster may be the best option, he said.
Price said: “We’ve taken the first step on a new path, a path of great change.” He pledged that Plaid, the third biggest party at the Welsh assembly after Labour and the Conservatives, would enjoy increased membership, authority and power. Price made it clear that his first priority was to improve the party machine to put it in a position to win power at the next assembly elections in 2021.
“The journey will be difficult,” he said. “As the first openly gay man to lead this party, and indeed any party in Wales … I am a modern, inclusive leader. No one will be left behind. There will be no second-class travellers on our journey to a confident, prosperous and independent Wales.” The 50-year-old said: “We have to take every opportunity to end the cataclysm that is heading our way. If we are able to get a people’s vote we should take that opportunity and ‘remain’ should be on the ballot.
Price, the assembly member for Carmarthen East and Dinefw, said the leadership contest result meant the party was ready to “believe again”. But he said: “All members must dig deep. Each of us must grab a shovel. We must mine a new seam of confidence and reopen with toil, tenacity and tenderness the deep-running vein of passion, patriotism and purpose that we know runs though the country of this great nation.” “If we don’t avoid a no-deal Brexit, we are going to see an unravelling of the Welsh economy on a 1930s scale because of the importance of agriculture and manufacturing on our economy.
He did not mention Brexit directly in his speech but said it was time to tackle health, education and economic problems in Wales. Appealing directly to potential new members, he said: “A successful, independent Wales is not a far-off, unachievable aspiration, it is a firm near-term realisable goal.” “We’re about stopping it but if it happens it will be a crisis on a huge level. We will have to think how best to defend ourselves in those circumstances and that may accelerate the path towards independence. It may be then that the people of Wales will want to move faster towards independence.”
Price may be best known across the UK as the MP who tried to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq war. Price, in his victory speech in Cardiff, paid tribute to Wood, the first female leader of the party and a popular figure on the UK stage after she called out the then Ukip leader Nigel Farage during a general election debate.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster group Leader, Liz Saville Roberts, said the leadership election had been energising. She said: “I look forward to working with Adam Price to take the fight to the Labour Welsh government in Cardiff and the Tories in Westminster. “As the first openly gay man to lead this party, and indeed any party in Wales … I am a modern, inclusive leader,” said Price. “No one will be left behind. There will be no second-class travellers on our journey to a confident, prosperous and independent Wales.”
Price, the assembly member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said the leadership contest result showed the party was ready to “believe again”. The miner’s son added: “All members must dig deep. Each of us must grab a shovel. We must mine a new seam of confidence and reopen with toil, tenacity and tenderness the deep-running vein of passion, patriotism and purpose that we know runs though the country of this great nation.”
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster group leader, Liz Saville Roberts, said the leadership election had been energising. She said: “I look forward to working with Adam Price to take the fight to the Labour Welsh government in Cardiff and the Tories in Westminster.
“Between our membership and supporters there is a spirit for change: to raise confidence and ambition, to perceive independence as the natural protection against looming threats, and as an assertion of faith in a future of our own making.”“Between our membership and supporters there is a spirit for change: to raise confidence and ambition, to perceive independence as the natural protection against looming threats, and as an assertion of faith in a future of our own making.”
The new leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Paul Davies, said Plaid members had signalled a new direction. He urged the party not to work with Labour at the assembly and suggested he could be prepared to team up with Plaid. Price was an MP for nearly a decade before leaving to study at Harvard in the US. He retuned to frontline politics in 2016. During his time in the Commons he hit the headlines when he tried to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq war.
“I hope that Adam realises that Plaid members have now signalled a new direction. This is a clear instruction to end Welsh Labour rule and that they should no longer prop them up,” Davies said.
“I have been consistently clear in not taking anything off the table when it comes to putting the Welsh Conservatives in government because my priority and mission is to provide a real, genuine alternative to this failing Welsh Labour administration, and change Wales for the better.”
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Walking the Brexit tightrope at Labour conference – Politics WeeklyWalking the Brexit tightrope at Labour conference – Politics Weekly
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Plaid CymruPlaid Cymru
Welsh politicsWelsh politics
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Brexit
Leanne Wood
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