Plaid Cymru government after next Senedd election is ‘realistic’, says Rhun ap Iorwerth

Plaid Cymru’s leader has insisted a Welsh government led by his party after the next Senedd election is “realistic”.

The next election to choose members to the Welsh parliament will take place in May 2026.

Ahead of the party’s two-day conference at Cardiff‘s Principality Stadium on Friday, Rhun ap Iorwerth told Sky News that a Labour victory in that election was “not inevitable” and that a Plaid win was “of course” realistic.

“The poll taken immediately after the UK general election showed us just one percentage point behind Labour, showing quite clearly that change is possible,” he said.

“My job is to put us in the strongest possible position in terms of what we’re offering the people of Wales.”

Plaid Cymru won four of Wales’s 32 seats at the general election and secured its highest vote share since its formation.

Mr ap Iorwerth said he believed the party, which supports Welsh independence, does have an influential role to play after the outcome of the UK general election.

“The emergence of a partnership between Labour in Cardiff Bay and in Westminster, a partnership in power as Labour have dubbed it, makes Plaid Cymru’s role even clearer and more important,” he added.

“We emerge even clearer in people’s minds I think as the party that will positively and constructively but uncompromisingly take our demands to UK government.”

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The next Senedd election will be the first to elect 96 politicians after legislation was passed to increase the number of members from 60.

The party currently has 12 members in the Welsh parliament, but Mr ap Iorwerth wouldn’t put a number on what would constitute a good result for Plaid Cymru at the next election.

“To me, it’s about maximising the number of Plaid Cymru Senedd members, maximising our influence in that next Senedd because we need a change of leadership,” he said.

“We have a newly-reformed Senedd, we have a new electoral system, but also we have a new opportunity for change.

“I want Wales to see the opportunities that come from changing political leadership in Wales, where Labour have been the leading party in Wales for 100 years.

“I want us to be able to lead a Welsh government, but the decision is in the hands of the people of Wales, where it should rightly be.”

In his conference speech, Mr ap Iorwerth is expected to tell party members that the Welsh NHS will undergo a “rebirth under a Plaid Cymru government”.

He will also announce that a Plaid government would include a minister for public health, making healthier lives a “truly national mission”.