Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood urges Labour voters to switch

Leanne Wood has urged Labour voters to "take another look at Plaid Cymru" at the 2016 assembly election.

She told Plaid's annual conference in Aberystwyth they were ready to "lead on the issues that matter most", claiming Labour took people for granted.

Ms Wood promised NHS reform, free care for elderly people and dementia sufferers, and the option of a lower school starting age.

She also pledged a £100m fund to invest in successful start-up companies.

A Plaid government next May would also be a mandate for a new devolution settlement from Westminster, she said, including income tax powers without a referendum.

'Inaction, incompetence and indifference'

Ms Wood said: "I ask people in every corner of the country: take another look at Plaid Cymru.

"We have listened. We know you want a party that will lead on those issues that matter most.

"Your hospital, your school, your workplace, your community."

Leanne Wood welcomed SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to the conference

Seeking to contrast First Minister Carwyn Jones's record with the "kinder politics" promised by Labour's new UK leader Jeremy Corbyn, she said: "There has been nothing kind about seventeen years of unbroken Labour rule in Wales.

"They have taken people for granted here and rewarded long-term loyalty with inaction, incompetence and indifference."

Plaid Cymru is currently the third party in Cardiff Bay, with 11 seats compared to 30 for Labour and 14 for the Conservatives, with the Lib Dems on five.

Earlier there was controversy when Ms Wood admitted to BBC Radio Wales she could not give a figure on the costs of Plaid's plans to merge health and social care.

The party is planning to publish a full alternative budget before the election.

'Strong team'

On the prospect of coming to power, Ms Wood told BBC Wales before her speech: "I want to see a Plaid Cymru government.

"Now I accept that forming a majority is difficult, because of the system that we have, but a Plaid Cymru minority administration would have to work with other parties in order to gets its budget and its programme through."

Plaid entered government for the first time in coalition with Labour in Cardiff Bay between 2007 and 2011, under Ms Wood's predecessor Ieuan Wyn Jones.

She said she could not rule out forming another coalition with Labour, but said it was "very difficult to see" how Plaid could share power with the Conservatives.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also addressed the conference on Friday, saying Ms Wood was "ready and able" to lead Wales as its first minister.

Analysis by Daniel Davies, BBC Wales political correspondent, at the Plaid Cymru conference

Leanne Wood has set her sights high. There were repeated references in her conference speech - and in the speech of warm-up act Nicola Sturgeon - about what she will do if and when she becomes Wales' first minister.

First, she needs to convince lots of Labour voters to switch allegiance to Plaid Cymru.

Opinion polls and recent election results suggest that will be an uphill task.

To try to turn that situation around, she's trying to build the case that Labour has failed Wales, in particular in the way it's overseen the health service since 1999.

Meanwhile, Labour claims Plaid's health policies don't add up, while the Conservatives ask if Ms Wood has such a low opinion of Labour, why have the two parties been happy to work together in Cardiff Bay?