McEvoy pledges to take on Drakeford after Plaid blow

CONTROVERSIAL AM Neil McEvoy, pictured, has given up on the idea of seeking to rejoin Plaid Cymru after a candidate who wanted to see him readmitted to the party was heavily defeated in an internal election at the weekend.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Dewi Evans had stood for the position of national chair against the current post holder, former Arfon AM Alun Ffred Jones, but was defeated by 400 votes to 135. Around 8,500 party members did not vote. They were entitled to do so but they would have had to travel to the party’s conference in Swansea to vote in person.

Mr McEvoy was expelled from Plaid in March last year after a party panel decided he had brought the party into disrepute. He was told he would have to wait 18 months before being allowed to reapply for membership. This was later cut to 12 months.

Confirming he had given up plans to reapply, and that he intends to stand against First Minister Mark Drakeford in Cardiff West at the next Senedd election in 2021, Mr McEvoy said: “Since I was elected to the National Assembly in 2016 I’ve felt that the Plaid Cymru AMs have stifled the national movement and held it back. But I owed it to Plaid members to stick in as long as I could to try to change the party. I’m now free to represent people as I see fit and I’m very positive about the future. Plaid Cymru’s monopoly of Welsh nationalist politics ended on Saturday and there are exciting times ahead.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesman said; “Successive polls show Plaid Cymru will form the next government in 2021. As highlighted in our highly successful conference, only Plaid Cymru candidates can deliver transformational change and we look forward to making the case in the constituency of the First Minister.”