Welsh Liberal Democrats: No UK coalition, says leader

Jane Dodds will tell her party's conference that Liberal Democrats understand the value of community

Welsh Liberal Democrats will not enter any coalition after the next general election, says the party's leader.

Speaking ahead of her party's Welsh conference in Cardiff, Jane Dodds said it was "absolutely not on the agenda".

Lib Dems were in coalition with the Conservatives in Westminster for five years after 2010, but lost most of their seats in the 2015 election.

The party currently has no Welsh MPs, and Ms Dodds is the only Lib Dem Member of the Senedd (MS).

But she said the Senedd was a good example of where her party could work with others.

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Asked about the possibility of entering a coalition if there were no clear majority at Westminster after the general election - which is expected later this year - Ms Dodds said: "I've banned that word, the word 'coalition'.

"It is absolutely not on the agenda, and that's not just me saying that. I think everybody's saying that… but obviously we've got to do adult, grown-up politics.

"And what I see, for example, in the Senedd is people are working together on some issues, and I would imagine that the Liberal Democrats, will be looking to see, what they can gain for people?

"Because that's what people want to see. They want to see us being able to work hard for them, and to achieve things, to change things for the better in their lives."

Jane Dodds is the only Lib Dem in the 60-member Senedd and the party has no Welsh MPs

The Lib Dems had 57 seats in the Commons when they went into coalition, but saw that number collapse to just eight in 2015.

Many commentators said the party took the flak for the public's unhappiness with the Conservative-led government.

Ahead of the conference this weekend, Ms Dodds said: "We're looking forward to this year. We're looking forward to the general election. We've got some really clear priorities, really clear messages.

"So the mood's really good. We've won some by-elections at councils recently in Wales, so it's really upbeat, and we're really positive."

She said hers was "the party of community politics".

"We're the people who work on the ground, but we are really conscious of the pressures on the health service, that people, for example, don't have an NHS dentist… childcare is another one. We're really aware that families are struggling, being able to access affordable, high quality childcare," she said.

Though the party currently doesn't hold any seats in Wales, in the recent past it has had a handful of MPs, mainly in rural mid Wales.

On target seats, Ms Dodds said her party was small, and had to choose where to concentrate its efforts.

She cited the new seat of Brecon, Radnor and Cwmtawe as one where the Lib Dems would be working hard, but she said the party would also be campaigning for votes across the whole of Wales.