Plaid leader: Only we can defeat Labour

LEANNE Wood has signalled that she has no intention of standing down as Plaid Cymru leader before the next National Assembly election in three years time – presenting herself as an anti-establishment figure capable of ousting Labour.

In a speech at her party’s Spring conference in Llangollen, Ms Wood made clear her intention to champion those who have been left behind by austerity policies. And she argued that only a strong Wales, bolstered by as many self-governing powers as possible, would have the will and ability to improve people’s lives.

Attacking Labour’s continuous rule in Wales since the Assembly was set up in 1999, she said: “Devolution has given us tools. The tools we need to begin crafting [a] new nation. To improve the living standards of our people.

“That’s why it’s nothing short of an outrage that after almost 20 years of devolution, so little progress has been made in building our nation. It has implications for our resilience – our ability to cope – when circumstances are difficult or when Westminster governments cut our budgets.”

Linking what she perceives as the weakness of Labour’s devolution performance, she told delegates: “Life as a citizen of Wales is too tough for too many. My inbox and my surgeries are full of people looking for assistance to navigate a cold, bureaucratic and uncaring system.”

She said that not only were people trying to access housing, healthcare and justice, or struggling against the Universal Credit “nightmare”, but they were seeking job opportunities and asking how they could start a business. Many had given up seeking help or representation from politicians. Ms Wood said: “If you allow people to be ground down as part of a failing economic model which can no longer deliver the basics, let alone people’s aspirations, then it should come as no surprise when people vote against the status quo.”

Looking towards the next National Assembly election in 2021, Ms Wood insisted that Plaid Cymru was the party that could break through and defeat Labour. She declared that following the upheaval of last year’s General Election, Plaid Cymru now had a responsibility to look to the next Assembly election in 2021 and focus on becoming the next government of Wales.

She said: “Allowing the country next door to decide so many vital aspects of our daily lives has not worked in the past. Why does anybody think it will work in the future? This is not as good as it gets for Wales. But we can only unleash our potential with a nation-building Government of our own if we break the decades of Labour status quo.”

Having made it clear in January that it was too early to write a manifesto for 2021, Ms Wood nevertheless revealed that the party was developing 10 goals for government that would set national objectives aimed at changing Wales for the better.

She pledged that a Plaid government would reintroduce target times for serious medical emergencies, within which ambulances would be expected to pick up patients. Ms Wood also promised that a future Plaid administration would introduce a statutory right to mental health care for young people.

Concluding her speech, the Plaid leader said she had a “streak of the anti-establishment” In her. She accused Labour of being responsible for “a stagnation of our politics, of our ambition, of our future”.

Plaid, by contrast, was seeking to reignite hope, which meant going against the tide of history “to build a better tomorrow”.