Vote Plaid Cymru to break with past, says leader

Voters wanting a future different from the past should back Plaid Cymru at the UK general election, its leader will tell his party's conference on Friday.

Rhun ap Iorwerth will say Conservatives have caused "untold damage" to those they are meant to serve and Labour is simply offering more austerity.

"We stand apart from UK establishment politics," he will say. "We want people to feel hope about politics once again."

The spring conference is in Caernarfon.

In charge of Plaid Cymru for nine months, Mr ap Iorwerth leads the third biggest group in Cardiff Bay, with 12 seats in the 60-member chamber, behind the governing Labour Party and the Conservatives.

Plaid has three MPs at Westminster.

Plaid Cymru is an opposition party but is in the final year of a three-year co-operation agreement with Labour ministers on a range of policies, including expanding the Welsh Parliament, childcare and free school meals.

In his speech, on Friday afternoon, Mr ap Iorwerth will criticise both Labour and the Conservatives as he seeks to explain why voters should mark their cross by his party's candidates at a UK general election due in the next 10 months.

"From Ynys Môn to Monmouth, Conservative MPs have backed a wrecking ball regime causing untold damage to the people they're meant to serve," he will say.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's answer was to "proclaim the need for an entirely new approach to politics" but "following the Conservative orthodoxy isn't a new approach to politics", he will tell Plaid members.

Mr ap Iorwerth will say the "sight of Rachel Reeves", Labour's shadow chancellor, "walking in lockstep with Jeremy Hunt", her opposite number, "only offers more austere times".

Plaid Cymru's leader will argue voting for his party will "keep the Tories out, put Wales' interests first" and "tell Labour that we won't let them take Wales for granted", a reference to Labour's long dominance of Welsh politics.

Labour has been in government in Cardiff since devolution in 1999, and currently possesses 30 of the 60 seats in Cardiff Bay and 21 of Wales' 40 seats in Westminster.

"We stand apart from UK establishment politics," Mr ap Iorwerth will say.

"We don't want the future to look like the past. We want people to feel hope about politics once again."

He will call for more cash for Wales from the next UK government, "the funding which is rightly ours from Treasury coffers contributed into by Welsh taxpayers' money, just like every other part of the UK".

He will also demand that post-general election government strengthens the Senedd's powers.

"Give us the levers we need to build a powerhouse parliament, not piecemeal devolution which can't keep pace with the hopes of our people," he will say.

Mr ap Iorwerth will warn Wales' new Labour First Minister, Vaughan Gething, he must restore trust after receiving controversial donations to his leadership campaign.

Mr Gething maintains he followed the rules but has agreed to review those rules.

Rhun ap Iorwerth was elected unopposed as Plaid Cymru leader last June, in the wake of Adam Price's dramatic resignation after a damning report alleged a culture of bullying, harassment and misogyny in the party.