Plaid 'could take power with 20 seats', says senior party AM

Rhun ap Iorwerth said Plaid did not want to form a government with other parties

Winning 20 assembly seats could allow Plaid Cymru to form the next Welsh government, a senior party AM has said.

Plaid is hoping to oust Labour from power in Cardiff Bay and form a minority administration after the assembly election in 2016.

Speaking at Plaid's autumn conference, Rhun ap Iorwerth said a government could be formed with "about 20" seats.

Plaid Cymru currently has 11 of the 60 seats in the Senedd, Labour has 30, the Conservatives 14 and the Lib Dems 5.

Speaking to BBC Wales on the final day of the conference in Aberystwyth, Mr ap Iorwerth declined to set a target for the number of seats his party is hoping to win.

When asked how many seats a party would need to form a stable minority government, he replied: "You're probably talking no more than about 20, which is possible."

But he said "a lot of energy was wasted" discussing coalition scenarios during May's general election campaign.

"Let's have that conversation about coalitions after the May elections, when the people have decided on the makeup of the next assembly," Mr ap Iorwerth added.

Elin Jones says Labour's poor record on health cannot be allowed to continue

Later at the conference, Plaid's health spokeswoman Elin Jones set out a six-point plan to improve health services.

The proposals include a sugary drinks tax, specialist diagnostics centres and the recruitment of 1,000 extra doctors.

Plaid Cymru's other main health priorities are:

• improving access to mental health services

• scrapping the current local health board structure

• integrating health and social care

Ms Jones accused Labour ministers of being "unwilling to take the big decisions on the NHS, and unable to get the small decisions right".

"They have spent too much time over the past four and a half years blaming a Westminster government for a lack of funds, there should be no more excuses," she said.

"Labour should be judged on what it has failed to achieve with the powers and budget available to it, and we will be judged on what we promise to achieve within the powers and budget available to us."

Plaid leader Leanne Wood and Plaid AM Llyr Gruffydd, to her left, at a farm near Aberystwyth

Visiting a farm near Aberystwyth earlier, Ms Wood accused Labour of "dragging its feet" when the agriculture industry needed urgent action from ministers.

Plaid Cymru, she said, would end the six-day standstill rule for livestock.

The regulation, brought in after the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, means that, with some exceptions, when cattle sheep and goats are moved onto a holding animals cannot leave the premises for six days.

"Measures such as the reversal of the six-day standstill rule needs to happen quickly - there is no excuse for the government to have delayed this matter for almost four years," she said.

'Earn the privilege'

In the conference hall, Plaid members backed a call for famous Welsh people to be represented on UK bank notes.

The conference voted in favour of a motion calling on the Bank of England to ensure that at least one Welsh figure is portrayed on the £5, £10, £20 or £50 note at any one time.

David Rees, a party activist from Caerphilly, said that since 1970, when the Bank of England launched its range of historical figures for banknotes, "not one of the figures they have chosen has come from Wales".

"Scotland, and even Ireland, have each supplied one person so far, yet no-one from Wales has ever apparently done enough to earn the privilege," he said.

Mr Rees conceded that the bank had announced the next £5 note will feature an image from each of the four UK nations.