‘Westminster consensus cannot solve the crises Wales faces’ – Liz Saville Roberts MP

Plaid Cymru Westminster leader accuses Labour of taking ‘inspiration’ from Thatcher

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP, has today (Friday 22 March) told party members in the party’s Spring Conference that the “Westminster consensus” cannot solve the crisis Wales faces.

She referred to Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves MP, who made clear this week that she would stick to fiscal rules set by the Conservatives.

Following the announcement of the Spring Budget earlier this month, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said £20 billion of cuts are expected to be made to public spending. The IFS accused both the Conservatives and Labour of “a conspiracy of silence” on their spending plans.

Ms Saville Roberts criticised Labour frontbenchers who this week described Margaret Thatcher as a “visionary” and described her time in office as a “decade of renewal”.

She made an appeal to Labour voters who may be uncomfortable with their party “surveying how the welfare state has been turned to a wasteland by the Tories and taking it as inspiration”,

Speaking in Plaid Cymru’s Spring Conference in Caernarfon today (Friday 22 March), Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts MP said:

“Recent weeks have shown time and again how our party’s voice is disregarded by the Westminster machine. Only by electing more Plaid Cymru MPs can we shake up this consensus more than ever before.

“This consensus between the two main parties cannot solve the crises we face today. 

“University College London has indicated that austerity policies between 2010 and 2019 are responsible for a three-year setback in life expectancy progress.

“Public services cannot withstand the extra £20 billion in tax cuts proposed by the Tories, spending plans Labour’s Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are poised to keep in government.

“We know why. Labour in 2024 look up to Thatcher as a blueprint. She was a ‘visionary’ according to one Labour front bencher. Another celebrated the ‘decade of renewal’ that followed Thatcher’s 1979 election.

“We know the reality of that decade, however. A decade of pain for coal miners, and LGBT people; A decade of rampant unemployment and inequality.

“The Labour of old strengthened the welfare state and built a national health service from the ruins of the Second World War.

“The Labour of today surveys how the welfare state has been turned to a wasteland by the Tories and take it as inspiration.

“Rejecting the Tories means more than just changing the colour of the party of government. Wales can do so much better than that.

“If you want to reject the harmful policies that decimated our industry and crippled communities, if you want a confident, ambitious future, Plaid Cymru is the home for you.”