Election 'straight fight' between Labour and Plaid predicted

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood will fight the Rhondda constituency in the assembly election

Next year's assembly election will be a "straight fight" between Labour and Plaid Cymru, according to Leanne Wood.

But the Plaid leader refused to be drawn on whether she would work with Labour in coalition.

The two parties ran a government together in Cardiff Bay between 2007 and 2011.

At the general election, Plaid said it wanted to work with a UK Labour government to keep David Cameron out of Downing Street.

But looking to ahead to next May's assembly election, Ms Wood said: "It's a straight fight in many people's minds between Plaid Cymru and Labour.

"People need to ask themselves who is going to be the next first minister of Wales and they have got a choice between the existing first minister or myself as the first minister candidate for Plaid Cymru - it's as simple as that really."

'Not relevant'

Her party will go into the election as the third largest in the assembly behind Labour and the Conservatives.

But speaking to BBC Wales' Sunday Politics programme, she said the Tories - who she has ruled out working with - were "not relevant" in the assembly.

A Conservative party spokesman responded by saying Leanne Wood was the only person in Wales who believed this, adding: "In reality, most voters know that a vote for Plaid Cymru is a vote for Labour."

He added that "despite general election coverage beyond their wildest dreams", Plaid had failed to make an impression outside the seats they already held.

"Voters seeking respite from 17 painful years of Labour dominance will be looking to Andrew RT Davies and the Welsh Conservatives to deliver a new Wales, and we will be taking that positive message to the doorsteps between now and May 2016," he said.

Lord Elis-Thomas criticised his party's main general election demand that Wales should be treated in the same way as Scotland

Plaid failed to add to its tally of three parliamentary seats at the general election.

The party's campaign was criticised by one of its most prominent AMs, former Plaid leader Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

His comments have angered some in the party and Ms Wood confirmed Plaid's national executive is talking to his local party about whether to take action against him.

Asked whether that could mean he does not stand again for Plaid in the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency, she said she was "not at liberty" to talk about what the outcome could be.