Labour failures feed Reform fearmongering - Plaid

Labour failings in government are feeding Reform party "fearmongering", Plaid Cymru's leader will tell his party's spring conference on Friday.

Speaking in Llandudno, Rhun ap Iorwerth will say Plaid will "offer hope", and an end to 26 years of Labour rule in Wales, at next year's Senedd election.

Making him first minister would be a "win-win for Wales", he will say, offering a chance to rebuild public services and the Welsh economy while "standing up to Keir Starmer and UK Labour".

Recent polling suggests Plaid, Reform and Labour are neck-and-neck in Wales, which if accurate could mean the most open election since the start of devolution in 1999.

That election will be fought under a more proportional voting system, as the Welsh Parliament undergoes a major expansion, from 60 to 96 seats, another reason Plaid Cymru believes there is everything to play for between now and May next year.

The party is also buoyed by achieving its best-ever UK general election result last summer, winning four Westminster seats, but has never won a Senedd election during the two and-a-half decades of devolution.

Plaid has worked with Labour in government as a coalition partner and, more recently, in a co-operation agreement.

That deal, due to run until last December, was ditched six months early by ap Iorwerth amid a Labour leadership election donations row which later forced the previous first minister, Vaughan Gething, from office.

Addressing his party faithful on Friday afternoon, ap Iorwerth will say that if he becomes first minister next year he will put the UK prime minister "on notice that the relationship will change because our destination demands it".

Accusing Sir Keir Starmer of making "life more difficult for the most vulnerable" with "Tory-inspired benefits cuts", he will characterise First Minister Eluned Morgan as someone who "doesn't want the powers that could make a difference to people's lives".

"We have a Labour first minister blinded by party loyalty, too afraid to rock the boat, pandering to Starmer, stuck in the middle of the road and failing to move our nation forward," he will argue.

"So, whilst Labour's failures feed Reform's fear-mongering, we are here to offer hope.

"An end to Labour-led rule in Wales after 26 years."

Morgan regularly refuses to answer questions from ap Iorwerth in the Senedd because they concern matters Sir Keir is responsible for, rather than her.

Ap Iorwerth will promise his audience in Llandudno that a Plaid Cymru Welsh government "will take responsibility for its own actions rather than deflect to Westminster".

"Our ultimate-aim is to future-proof Wales by not allowing ourselves to depend on the whims of Westminster," he will say. "We want to be good neighbours but equal neighbours," he will say.

"But so long as we are tied to the unequal union, we must leverage the prospect of Wales standing on its own two feet. And becoming a genuine partner in a redesigned Britain."

The two-day Plaid Cymru event is the first of the Welsh political party spring conferences taking place over the coming months.

On BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Friday morning, the party leader said it was "time to remove that Labour establishment grip of the levers of power in Wales by having a different first minister".

He denied that Plaid Cymru, which was in a co-operation deal with Labour until summer 2024, was part of the Welsh establishment.

"There is only one establishment party in Wales, the party that has won every election in Wales for 102 years, that's the Labour Party," he said.

"I'm offering up myself to be first minister, my team to do the hard yards for Wales, because we need that change and we need it to be a positive change," he said.