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Plaid Cymru is on course to win highly anticipated Welsh elections in May, most likely with the help of Labour support. But who are they, and what are their plans for Wales?
Plaid Cymru – meaning the Party of Wales – is a centre-left, Welsh national party with the long-term aim of gaining independence from the United Kingdom. It is led by Rhun ap Iorwerth, a 53-year-old former BBC journalist, who, in an interview with The House Magazine, likened his party’s rise in Wales to that of the new left-wing mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.
From its inception in the 1920s, the party has associated itself with defending and promoting the Welsh language, and its constitution sets out a commitment to decentralised socialism and social justice.
Like elsewhere in the UK, the rise of Reform has been a major talking point in Wales, with opinion polls putting Nigel Farage’s insurgent party comfortably ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives. The collapse of the Welsh Labour vote is particularly striking, with the party having constantly governed in Wales since the devolved administration in Cardiff was created.
However, the Caerphilly by-election in October transformed the political contest in Wales, pushing Plaid firmly into the spotlight and making it the favourite to be the largest party at the May elections. Plaid candidate, Lindsay Whittle, won the Senedd seat by a majority of 3,848 votes and captured almost half of the total vote share (47.4 per cent). Reform was over 11 per cent behind in second place.
A YouGov poll for Cardiff University published earlier this month further crystallised the political earthquake that looks set to shake Wales this year. It put Plaid on 33 per cent — 23 per cent ahead of Labour. Reform was close behind on 30 per cent.
The research projected Plaid to win 39 seats under the new voting system, ten short of the number needed to form a majority. It said Labour was on course to secure ten seats, which, if agreed by the two parties, would be enough to form a Plaid-led administration.
The result in Caerphilly suggested that Plaid’s claim to be the only party that can stop Farage is working.
In England, Keir Starmer hopes that a strategy of warning that only Labour can stop Farage becoming prime minister will ultimately persuade voters on the left to back his party come the next general election. In Wales, however, Plaid is using the same tactic against Welsh Labour.
“Labour will have to recognise that surely that [Plaid] is a better option for Wales than the Reform option,” ap Iorwerth told The House Magazine.
First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a visit to a engineering workshop at Coleg Menai in Anglesey in November (Alamy)
Plaid believes that, alongside reinforcing its progressive credentials, its greatest asset is its claim to be the party that genuinely stands up for Wales. It is seeking to portray the larger parties as increasingly out of touch with the country, and is keen to make the point that the Prime Minister has not responded to its leader’s three written requests for a meeting.
In the key months leading up to the May elections, Plaid intends to launch an intensive push in the London‑based media to ensure Wales features heavily in coverage, PoliticsHome understands. This includes a focus on political podcasts, with plans to appear on Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s The Rest Is Politics.
It will pursue what party sources described as a “digital‑first” approach, similar to that of Zack Polanski’s Greens, but with an emphasis on appearing more credible and substantial.
“Rhun has already appeared across UK-wide TV, radio and podcasts, and we will be building on that momentum to make sure our message reaches a wider audience,” a Plaid source said.
“If the polls are correct, Keir Starmer will be the first Labour leader in 100 years to lose Wales. We are making sure journalists in Westminster understand the scale of the change that could be coming.”
Plaid Cymru has pledged to bring forward a blueprint for Welsh independence, but not during the first term of any Plaid‑led administration. At the party’s conference last year, ap Iowerth said he would set up a commission to engage the Welsh population in deciding its constitutional future.
Labour, led in Wales by First Minister Eluned Morgan, has not ruled out forming a government with Plaid, with the party mainly focusing its attacks on Reform.
However, a Labour source in Wales said Plaid was “horrendously divided” and not ready for the weight of office. “They are completely unprepared for the trade-offs of government, and, if they are elected, they will soon realise that promising everyone the world will quickly lead to disappointment and disaster,” they told PoliticsHome.
Labour and Plaid have previously worked together and shared power in both the Senedd and Westminster.
Throughout the no-confidence motions against former Labour prime minister James Callaghan in the late 1970s, two Plaid MPs voted with the Labour government to keep him in post against Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher. Much more recently, earlier this month, Plaid voted to help Labour get its latest budget through.
Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, told PoliticsHome that the party was “always open” to working with those on the left of politics.
There are still some question marks over how Plaid would govern in Wales.
However, Delyth Jewell, Senedd member for South Wales East, may have offered a clue in an interview with PoliticsHome when she said there was “certainly” a lot for Plaid to learn from its sister party: the Scottish National Party (SNP).
“One of the things to learn from the SNP is, of course, how they governed as a minority,” she said. “At first, they were able to go it alone, and I think that has been a really powerful message.”
