Labour-Plaid deal changes thousands of lives, says Adam Price

Plaid Cymru's co-operation agreement with Labour in the Senedd will change the lives of thousands of people across Wales, Plaid's leader has promised.

In a speech, Adam Price said plans in the deal to give all primary school children free school meals show the party is making a difference.

The pre-recorded address was played at a virtual conference on Friday.

Party members will vote on whether to endorse the deal on Saturday.

Mr Price called it a "nation-building programme for government which will change the lives of thousands of people the length and breadth of our country for the better".

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Asked, on Radio Wales Breakfast, if some Plaid members might be concerned how an agreement with its Labour rivals might go down on the doorstep, he said "yes, sure, and I wouldn't take anything for granted" in Saturday's vote.

"But I think it's an incredibly positive and radical package of policies, we've got many of the main policies that we were campaigning on in the election," he added, referring to May's Senedd poll.

In that election Labour won 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Parliament and Plaid Cymru gained an extra Senedd member, taking its tally to 13, but fell to third place behind the Conservatives.

Some of the other main elements of the deal, already backed by both parties' executive committees, include introducing local tourism taxes, publishing proposals on rent controls to make properties affordable for locals and reforming housing law to end homelessness.

The parties have been in talks since the summer

Creating an NHS style free-at-point-of-need National Care Service, plans to change council tax and changes to the number of Senedd members are also contained in what Plaid Cymru and Labour are both calling a "very wide-ranging" three-year agreement.

Making the case for the deal, Mr Price said in his speech that talks with Labour began six months ago "in the face of the pandemic" and what he calls a "hostile Conservative government in Westminster".

"We believed it would be in the nation's interests for the two parties to work together for Wales," he said.

"We will help shape a new and reformed Senedd - one that will be bigger and more diverse.

"It will be a Senedd which is gender balanced in law - enshrining the right to equal representation for women for the first time ever."

Mr Price argued that the Welsh Parliament must be strengthened, with new powers over welfare, communications, broadcasting, policing and justice.

Adam Price saw his majority fall in his Carmarthen East and Dinefwr seat in May's election

He also predicted that what he calls Wales' "curiosity" about independence "will give birth - sooner than many think - to an independent Wales".

The cross-party Independent Constitutional Commission, announced last month to examine Wales' relationship with the rest of the UK, "will take our national constitutional journey to the next stage", he said.

'Breaking the mould'

The Plaid Cymru leader said the party was "transforming itself from a traditional opposition party in the Westminster sense to something new and refreshingly different, a co-opposition party, co-operating where possible, while continuing to oppose, and to scrutinise and criticise where necessary".

"It is a unique Welsh departure from the British constitution - a down-payment if you like on independence - though similar arrangements have happened elsewhere - notably in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway; and in Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand," he said.

"Small nations all breaking the mould of politics-as-usual."

This virtual conference is taking place after Plaid Cymru abandoned plans for members to meet in person in Aberystwyth last month due to the pandemic.

No Plaid seats around the cabinet table

With Labour having exactly half the 60 seats in Cardiff Bay the Welsh government has no overall majority to deal with what First Minister Mark Drakeford has called "challenging and ambitious issues".

The deal would not amount to a coalition between the parties, and Plaid Cymru members of the Senedd will not be entering government.

But BBC Wales had been told Plaid would be able to appoint special advisers to work on the deal in government.

The deal negotiated with Labour gives Adam Price something positive to take to conference after what was a disappointing set of election results in May.

He says the deal gives Plaid influence on Welsh government policy, contrasts with a "sterile" Westminster approach, and is an exercise in "nation building".

That's a hat trick for many Plaid members - manifesto policies achieved, difference from Westminster, and arguably further steps in the direction of independence.

It'll be a big shock if members don't give this the thumbs up when they vote on the deal on Saturday.