Everything Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said in his Annual Conference speech

Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth addressed the party's annual conference at Swansea in October 2025.

Gyfeillion, diolch yn fawr am y croeso! Mae’n hyfryd bod yn ôl yma yn Abertawe - y Copperopolis ynde, gafodd ei siapio gan dwf y diwydiant Copor. Wel dan ni’n ymgynnull yma heddiw wrth i ni baratoi i siapio dyfodol ein cenedl ni. Mae ‘na gyfle hanesyddol o’n blaenau ni, a’n braint ni ydi cael ceisio troi y cyfle hwnnw yn realiti, dros Gymru.

Today, with a historic nation-building opportunity before us, I’m going to set out the choice facing Wales – two very different futures but only one credible option.

A seismic shift in our politics lies ahead. Change now seems inevitable and of course it’s long overdue. 

So to the people of Wales I say ‘come with us’.

Together, we can choose a different path – one where we roll up our sleeves to fulfil our potential, not one where we simply settle for what we have.

One where poverty is overcome, not endured.

One where to govern means showing real leadership, not managerialism.

One where Wales’s voice is strengthened, never silenced.

And one where our conviction makes us challenge those who seek to divide us – always.

A brighter future – a break from the past.

The story of our country is of one-party domination – that party’s firepower once as potent as the blast furnaces across the bay, yet it now casts a  shadow as dark as the plumes which once melted the Margam sky. 

And there’s a real significance to that particular analogy. That Labour party became so preoccupied with holding on to power that it forgot where it came from and who it was there to serve.

Decades of loyalty at the ballot box repaid by 10 hours of parliamentary debate to save the steel industry in Scunthorpe, when 10 miles down the road from here, virgin steel-making was cast aside, along with the livelihoods of so many workers and the aspirations of their families.

Conference, Labour’s betrayal of Port Talbot’s steelworkers will never be forgotten, nor will their failure to stand up for Wales.

It’s been a century-old story. As Labour courted power at Westminster with the help of Welsh votes, Wales itself has so often lost out.

But WE kept our eyes on the challenge of building Wales. 

To the sound of Yma o Hyd we marked our centenary under the August sun this year, a literal and metaphorical reminder of our party’s place in the national conversation.

It’s been a journey where the need to stay focused and determined have been difficult at times. The music may seem to have stopped in the spring of 1979, as Wales lost its nerve. But in reality the band kept playing, and ever since, the real ‘Welsh Way’ – the route to a brighter Welsh future - has had the yellow and green of Plaid Cymru running through it.

And yet, for all the battles we’ve won, the influence we’ve brought to bear, we know we have unfinished business.

To lead a government with its sights set further, its ambition never held back, with power focused on our nation’s needs through a real sense of purpose not party dogma. 

A Wales unleashed from its shackles.

A fresh start under new leadership.

No diktats from London or orders to obey.

No going easy when Wales loses out.

Conference, as one, we say no more. Plaid Cymru is ready to lead!

It won’t be an easy task.

Wales, indeed the world, are very different places compared with 1999, and the dawn of devolution.

That sense of hope and anticipation back then at the opportunity that came with having a parliament to call our own can feel somewhat distant now.

But we must revive it if Wales is to succeed, because the prize is too great not to win, and the alternative too grim to comprehend. 

Polling by YouGov just a few weeks ago showed that 82% of people in Britain think the UK is in a bad state, with 60% expecting it to get even worse over the next year.

I’m not here to question those findings – I see what drives those sentiments every day, in emails from constituents, during surgeries, in those everyday conversations we have. And we all see it for ourselves!

In access to the NHS. In bleak town centres. Difficulty getting housing. And of course, the cost of living crisis still bites, and it bites most for those with least.

But nor am I here to argue that the answer to these problems lies in putting on a pair of rose-tinted glasses and looking to the past. Nostalgia won’t put food on the table.

And I’m certainly not here to blame desperate, vulnerable people fleeing dangers, poverty and desperation for all of society’s ills. 

The UK has faced a summer of simmering hatred with hotels housing asylum seekers being surrounded by angry demonstrations, and far right marches taking to the streets.

Spurred on, of course by the man who literally depends on sowing and perpetuating tensions and divisions for his fortune, Nigel Farage.

Because by scapegoating, by dividing communities, pitching neighbour against neighbour, Farage and his followers drive the deliberate fragmentation of society, giving life to the bogeyman without whom they are nothing.

For him, politics is a zero-sum game – where Wales is a playground and our parliament a plaything for Reform to try to gain an electoral foothold at the expense of what’s actually in Wales’s interests.

Of course, if it wasn’t Reform, it would be someone else - moulded in the image of the divisive right wing politics which is now a global phenomenon. It’s a scourge seen throughout the world, and it’s important to recognise that we’re not immune from its dangers here in Wales. 

Yes, there is a housing shortage.

Yes, the NHS is overstretched and under-resourced.

Yes, bills are too high and many wages too low.

But let’s remember who’s really to blame.

A decade and a half of austerity coupled with the perverse reality that the wealthiest 10% of UK households hold 41% of wealth.

People struggling in communities the length and breadth of Wales are encouraged to blame other poor people in the hope that they forget that it’s Government failures to tackle inequalities that are at the root of the problems we face. We need to pull together!

I entered elected politics 12 years ago because I wasn’t willing to accept those inequalities then and I’m not willing to accept it now.

I cared so deeply that I wanted to play my part in the story of Wales – and make a contribution if I could. Personally it was a journey from being an observer to being hands on. 

I knew that all too often a postcode, or someone’s background, was like a lottery ticket, with a select few winning that prize of decent housing, timely healthcare, excellent education and modern transport links.

I was angry that Wales was always at the back of the queue, feeding off Westminster’s scraps and making do as the rich were making hay.

I was driven by the values instilled in me by my family, including my late mother, Gwyneth – not only my inspiration but my motivation too.

Unlike dad who still proudly guards the loud speaker duties during elections, knows where every placard goes, and who I still have the privilege of campaigning alongside on the doorstep, mam wasn’t as political with a capital P. But she instilled in me the importance of service, both to community and to Wales. 

A teacher, trade unionist and teaching union president, president of nursery schools organisation Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin, and the national women’s movement Merched y Wawr, she put all her energy into seeking better for her community and country.

Elect me as the next First Minister of Wales, and that is what I will do too.

Friends, the next six months are mission critical.

But first, we have a by-election to win.

And who could wish for a better candidate than Lindsay Whittle?

Hardworking. Loyal. Authentic doesn’t come close – he’s Caerffili to the core!

There is no one better placed to champion local services, to stand up to the current Labour Government on behalf of his community, to call out Reform’s empty promises and to give the people of Caerffili the effective, committed Senedd Member they deserve.

So with just under two weeks to go, I’m urging each and every one of you to campaign with Lindsay and ensure that Caerffili is awash with the colour, the energy and the vision of Plaid Cymru. Lindsay, we’ll back you, and we’ll back Wales all the way.

Conference, we know there’ll be two competing offers at May’s election, but only one credible government.

Take a moment to consider the alternatives.

Labour’s time is up - their number of rebrands, reshuffles and resets scores higher than their polling.

A First Minister who went on a listening tour with her fingers in her ears.

A First Minister who should have Keir Starmer on speed dial but who can barely get passed the number 10 switchboard.

Everyone can see Labour’s time has passed. More and more Labour voters are turning to Plaid Cymru. Every single day. 

And then... the spectre of Reform looms large. They’re the Tories now... the ultra Conservatives. And remember what the Conservatives did to Wales.

Their recent conference a Trump-like circus, their politicians as out of tune as they are out of touch with the REAL challenges facing the Welsh electorate.

So looking at Labour and Reform you have a ship which is all at sea and an empty vessel making a lot of noise!

Or you can choose a pro-Wales government which understands the value of devolution and the price of Westminster - those hallowed halls so utterly obsessed with hoarding power that Wales’ voice is relegated to a lame echo. Thank goodness for Liz, Ben, Llinos and Ann who refuse to be silenced!

In 1999 Tony Blair declared that Labour’s promise of delivering a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly had strengthened the UK. At least he was honest about his intentions! 

Implicit in his declaration was the sense that whilst giving the distant provinces ‘something’ - a right to wield some influence - REAL power and wealth somehow needed to remain the preserve of the Palace of Westminster.

But leaders surely have to show that their values aren’t dictated by their proximity to that power.

It seems the Secretary of State for Wales was so impatient to get into the Ministerial car that she forgot the promise she made to the people of Wales about a certain rail track in England.

One minute it was, and I quote, “utterly illogical” to designate HS2 as an ‘England and Wales’ project – depriving Wales of billions of pounds in consequential funding – the next she declared that HS2 didn’t exist any more, that it wasn’t even being built. I went to the building site myself and took a picture to prove that it is! 

It’s contemptuous, and it’s time to say ‘so long’ to the office of the Secretary of State for Wales.

Conference, Labour once had ‘Standing up for Wales’ as its slogan, but the truth is that when our country comes calling they’d rather sit on their hands.

Every Welsh council wants the Crown Estate devolved, as it is in Scotland, an estate worth more than £600m to our economy , yet perversely  owned by the King.

But Conference, Labour won’t have it.

They know better.

‘It makes no commercial sense,’ say Labour MPs, ignoring even their own activists, and even their own Ministers in Wales, who now back Plaid Cymru’s view!

Friends, we’ve been patronised for too long.

Lectured from afar by those who know little about Wales and care even less.

The difference between Labour and Plaid is simple. 

When they say “no” and question why, we say yes and why not?

Why not give Wales equality with Scotland?

Why not believe in our nation’s ability to chart its own course like so many other nations across the world?

Because we meet their pessimism with optimism, their doubt with conviction, their subservience with confidence, and their deference to Westminster with unstinting devotion to Wales.

And we’re ready to govern. Right now.

To lead our nation through the power of partnership as opposed to a so-called Partnership in Power.

Wales is hurting, its people and its infrastructure.

I hear you. I see it every day.

Communities are hollowed out, services decimated, and bills unaffordable. 

Health, Opportunity, Prosperity and Equality feeling like scarce commodities.

But take the first letter of those four words and what do you get?

Hope.

A currency much devalued in an age where fear is propogated so openly.

But it’s our duty to ensure that hope prevails over despair.

Yes, society is bruised but it’s not broken. That is what some will have us believe because without those grievances they have nothing – they are nothing.

Everywhere around me, I see Wales at its best.

In village halls, community groups, choirs, sports teams and kids’ clubs, there is still a spirit of generosity, of kindness, of tolerance which refuses to be extinguished. 

Farage will feverishly pedal the feedback loop of fear and paranoia but we can put a stop to that..

And together, we can usher in an age of new leadership that will set Wales on a different path.

Conference, this is where I tell you that my father was NOT a toolmaker. He was, though, like mam, a teacher giving young people the tools to face the future! But whilst we in Wales DON’T yet have all the tools we need to do the job, we CAN get to grips straight away with the building blocks, fix what’s broken and build something better with hope as our guide.

Take our cherished NHS, once famed for being born on Labour’s watch and now infamous under Labour in Wales for the longest waits.

Almost a quarter of all patients in Wales wait over a year for treatment, compared to just 3% in England, and almost half of cancer patients don't begin treatment within the clinically recommended 62-day period.

This simply isn’t good enough.

It isn’t fair either, for patients or for staff. 

By neglecting primary and social care, ambulances line up outside our hospitals, corridors have become new treatment wards and A+E has become an extension of the GP surgery.

We simply can’t go on like this.

The NHS faces two challenges. There’s the immediate imperative to bring down waiting lists and we WILL provide an immediate cash injection to prioritise the longest waits. If you pay your taxes it’s only right that you get something in return.

But friends there’s a broader challenge. To end the perennial health emergency, the cycle of special measures and staff burnout we must make a different argument.

Making the NHS sustainable will never JUST be about upping the short-term cash, and Plaid Cymru WILL unleash our promised revolution in preventative health to create long term wellbeing. Where Labour have dithered, we’ll take decisive action. >>>

We’ll peel off the sticking plaster and put something better in its place – beginning the journey from managing ill health to creating a ‘well Wales’.

And where Reform threatens our cherished NHS with US-style bills and a sell-off to the highest bidder, I say today, tomorrow and forever, under a Plaid Cymru government, our Health Service will always be free at the point of need.

Conference, we know there is no sustainable future for the NHS unless we reform our neglected social care sector.

It is a matter of great pride for me that Plaid Cymru  initiated the long-overdue work of developing a National Care Service for Wales, which, once established, would represent the most significant achievement in our health policy landscape since the very foundation of the NHS.

Reshaping the institutional landscape of social care, and pursuing genuine integration will focus our minds in government.

Poor health bears a heavy price – one that can all too often be estimated at birth.

A child born into a poorly-insulated home in a deprived town, whose parents can’t afford sport club fees or gym memberships, is far more likely to develop diabetes or heart disease in later life than a counterpart from an affluent area.

Intergenerational poverty leads to intergenerational ill-health.

That’s why Plaid Cymru is so determined to break that vicious and destructive cycle.

The best start for every child – that is our vision.

Whatever their postcode, whatever their circumstances, we want every child in Wales to have the best possible chance to live a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.

Starting with what experts see as a groundbreaking policy in Scotland, we’ve already announced the introduction of a direct Child Payment pilot – a £10 weekly cash payment for children living in low-income households, worth more than £1,000 a year to a low-income family with two children.

I asked the First Minister if she’d push the Labour-run UK Treasury not to put barriers in the way of such a payment and all she could muster in her reply was that our policy was uncosted – a claim as untrue then as is it is now.

Just like the Tories, Labour’s record shows they’re deeply unserious about tackling poverty.

They dropped their targets to eradicate child poverty and ignored calls to reinstate those targets in their latest child poverty strategy. 

They hide behind the veneer of equality and all the while 200,000 children in Wales live in poverty – their daily struggles real, their futures impeded and the lives of so many children affected even before they’re born.

It’s worse than unfair - it’s immoral. But it’s also illogical.

By giving every child the best possible start, society as a whole wins too.

Conference, ‘change’ must mean more than a slogan on an election leaflet.

In our ‘change’ election next year, we bring not only the impetus of new leadership but a promise to make a difference to your life, wherever you live.

A feeling of unfairness is palpable, the stench of austerity lingering long after the Tories morphed from insurgents to irrelevant, and still surrounding Starmer’s faltering first year in office. 

I know that too many of you are struggling to get by; the pay packet may go up but what you have left at the end of the month is going down.

You juggle jobs and kids, cut back on basics and barely make do.

You live in a land of plenty and wonder why your family hasn’t got enough.

You’re tired of the Tory-Labour merry-go-round of broken pledges – and of course Westminster won’t give Wales all the tools needed to make your lives better. But there are things within our power that could make a difference.

We know what we strive towards. No community left behind and no person, family, or child unworthy of a decent life.

That is why today, I am announcing that a Plaid Cymru government would introduce a transformative new universal free childcare programme, available for all children from the age of 9 months to 4 years, building towards providing at least 20 hours a week for 48 weeks a year. 

This is the most generous Welsh childcare offer ever, worth more than £30,000 to families in the first four years of their son or daughter’s life - a game-changing intervention with a multi-generational impact.

For children, the opportunity to socialise, to learn new skills and to set them on the right path to thrive in primary education.

For parents, the freedom to return to work without being forced to make the agonising calculation of whether they can afford it.

And for grandparents, so often caring for their children, their children’s children and their own ageing parents, the peace of mind that their government is on their side and on the side of their family.

Unlike the Labour Government’s offer in England, Plaid Cymru’s will be universal, eliminating the perverse prospect of the gap between entitlements for disadvantaged children and those with working parents being wider than ever, as charities have recently warned.

A helping hand with the things that matter the most.

That’s what a Plaid Cymru Government will mean for you and your family.

Gyfeillion, dyma bolisi gwirioneddol drawsnewidiol i bob cenhedlaeth gwerth £30,000 i deuluoedd ar gyfer pob plentyn.

Nid yn unig fydd o’n helpu rhieni efo cyllideb yr aelwyd, mi fydd hefyd yn ysgafnhau’r baich ar nain, taid, mamgu, tadcu sydd mor aml yn elfen greiddiol o drefniadau gofal plant.

Mae teuluoedd wedi dweud wrtho ni eu bod nhw’n cael trafferth dod a dau ben llinyn ynghyd ac mae Plaid Cymru wedi gwrando.

Dyna fydd fy flaenoriaeth - ymateb i’r heriau bob dydd hynny mewn modd sy’n gwneud Cymru yn lle tecach i fyw i gymaint o’i phobl a phosib hefo polisiau radical a blaengar.

Gynhadledd, hefo Llafur wrth y llyw, tydi’r economi ddim yn gweithio i bobl Cymru.

Mae gormod o gartrefi yn gorfod brwydro fis ar ol mis i dalu biliau ynni a dwr sy’n codi a chodi.

Ein pobl, ein cymunedau a'n busnesau ddim yn gweld hanner digon o elw o gyfoeth naturiol ein gwlad - gwynt a dwr.

Mae ganddo ni yng Nghymru y gallu i ofyn am reolaeth lawn dros ddwr yn barod, yn cynnwys y grym i reoleiddio prisiau a’r cyflogau mwyaf. Mae Llywodraeth Lafur Cymru wedi gwrthod gwneud hynny. 

Wel mi fyddwn ni YN cymryd rheolaeth o ddwr Cymru, gan ddefnyddio’r pwerau newydd hynny er mwyn gwneud popeth allwn ni i drio cadw prisiau dan reolaeth a gwella ansawdd dwr. Mwy o arbedion dros amser, llai o lygredd yn ein afonydd.

Rydan ni’n gwybod fod gormod o aelwydydd yn cael trafferth talu’r biliau – prun ai’n brisiau bwyd, costau teithio neu dreth y cyngor. 

Mae gormod o gymunedau Cymru yn wynebu dyfodol ansicr.

Mae Cymru wledig a’r sector amaeth yn teimlo wedi eu hesgeuluso'n llwyr.

Ymosodiad uniongyrchol ar sector mor bwysig i Gymru - dyna ydi treth etifeddiaeth Llafur.  

Mae addewid y Toriaid yn sgil Brexit na fydda ni’n colli ceiniog o gyllid ac yna methiant Llafur i ddeall arwyddocad amaeth i Gymru yn bygwth cynaliadwyedd y sector. 

Mi gefnogwn ni Gymru wledig a threfol fel ei gilydd - dyna addewid Plaid Cymru.  

Ac mi fydd ein pwyslais ar ddiogelwch bwyd yn berthnasol i chi, lle bynnag yda chi - yn rhoi bwyd o’r ansawdd gorau ar eich plat mewn ffordd sydd ddim yn costio’r ddaear nac yn ergyd drom i'ch poced.

There are conference, many profound questions an incoming Plaid Cymru Government will be determined to ask. One of the key ones - what is community if people have no place to call home?

Last year, a proposed law creating a right to an adequate home was rejected by Welsh Government, a weak and tin-eared response to a housing crisis playing out across Wales.

As others said at the time it was a missed opportunity to hard-wire a legal commitment to provide housing as a human right.

I can say proudly today that we will right this wrong. A Plaid Cymru government which not only knows the price of everything but its value too. But we won’t stop there. Our plans for upgrading homes will focus on energy efficiency that can save YOU money off your bills and cut carbon emissions, with a new public energy company for Wales still in our sights.

Building new homes, making existing homes better AND building Wales.

Bills up under Labour, Plaid always seeking ways of pushing them down as much as we can.

It’s that simple.

The Party of Wales on the side of the people of Wales.

Conference, radicalism has twin peaks, both of which we must summit.

Fairness, yes – where boundaries are no impediment to success.

But, ambition too.

We must never rest until we can look around our communities and see no-one is being left behind and neither can we neglect our go-getting credentials. We’re not here to tread water or just to get by, but to prosper. And to do so because that is for the common good, using that prosperity to further entrench the fairness we seek.

You can read for yourselves how serious we are.

We are the only party fighting next year’s Senedd election with an economic strategy in place. A prospectus for prosperity and a roadmap for well skilled, well paid jobs and a credit to Luke Fletcher’s tireless work.

Some are too shy about talking up Welsh business. Not me. In our size, in the strength of our local knowledge, in our capacity to be innovative and develop an economy reflective of regional needs, we in Wales have the opportunity to do things differently. 

We haven’t got all the powers we need to turn our economic fortunes around, but we do have ideas which will make a difference - like Plaid’s new development agency for Wales.

Learning from the experience of the WDA, its strengths and weaknesses, we will create the circumstances for business to flourish, bringing new investment, creating jobs, and supporting small and medium sized home-grown businesses that are the backbone not only of our local economies, but of our communities too. 

Fairness between regions, fairness between generations, fairness between vocations. A level playing field that enables everyone to pursue their aspirations. Plaid Cymru creating a prosperous Wales.

Gyfeillion, mae ‘na deimlad gwahanol i’r ymgyrch yma. 

Mae’r etholiad o’n blaenau ni’n un sy’n cynnig cyfle gwirioneddol i ni fel cenedl, ond mae’n rhaid goresgyn bygythiad go iawn ar yr un pryd. Tasa plaid arall yn cael ei ffordd, mi fydda 2026 yn dod ag atseiniau o 1536. Diddymu Cymru.

Glywoch chi’r cyfweliad yn ystod cynhadledd ddiweddar Reform efo un o’r Toris diweddara’ i ymuno efo’u rhengoedd – Laura Anne Jones?

Mi oedd hi’n barod iawn i gael gwared ar ein Senedd yn gyfan gwbl.

Dychmygwch!

Rheolaeth uniongyrchol o San Steffan – syniad cwbl dderbyniol i Reform. Enillion degawdau o frwydro yn diflannu dros nos.

Gwaddol aberth ac ymdrech yn cael ei sgubo i ffwrdd gan don o anwybodaeth.

Yr iaith a’n diwylliant? “Ddim yn flaenoriaeth,” medden nhw.

Ein llais yn diffodd a’r drws yn cau.

Yn hytrach, y drws yn agor i breifateiddio’r gwasanaeth iechyd. 

Mae amser Llafur ar ben - mae pawb yn gweld hynny - ond gadwch i ni beidio gadael i Reform hyd yn oed ddechrau datgymalu be sy’ wedi’i adeiladu hyd yma.

Oes mae llawer o gyfleon wedi’u gwastraffu efo Llafur wrth y llyw - di datganoli ddim  yn berffaith. Di datganoli ddim yn ddigon!

Ond mae’n Senedd ni yn gallu bod yn darian rhag y gwaethaf sydd gan San Steffan i’w gynnig – tarian all fod yn llawer mwy cadarn yn y dwylo cywir.

Felly dim ond un dewis blaengar, goddefgar, a chredadwy sy’n eich wynebu yn yr etholiad tyngedfennol yma – Llywodraeth Plaid Cymru.

Conference, we’re used to the tired tropes from political opponents when we say how we’ll make a difference.

We’re ‘fantasists’ say Labour, whilst claiming they’re the only ones with the ‘experience’. To govern. But all that does is to betray the entitlement that comes with being in power for so long.

It’s a party so wrapped up in self-preservation that it refuses to countenance the possibility that others may know what they’re doing.

They’ve shown their capacity to squander. Indeed, they have next to nothing to show for the £7 billion they claim to have spent on combatting poverty in recent years. In fact, child poverty is getting worse on their watch.

Smart investment should be the clarion call for everyone who wants our nation to thrive and prosper.

And in some cases it doesn’t always take big money to make a big difference.

Take education. 

For the price of a donation to Vaughan Gething’s Labour leadership campaign, and under plans developed by Cefin Campbell, we’ll make sure there’s a library in every primary school in Wales as part of a getting the basics right approach to improving literacy outcomes – and I look forward to Cefin setting out more of his vision for the future of education tomorrow.

When children read, families thrive, and it’s nothing short of reprehensible that this Welsh government has allowed Wales to sink to the bottom of international rankings compared with other nations of the UK.

As First Minister, I will not accept another year of Wales recording its lowest-ever reading score as it did in the 2022 PISA assessment.

I will not accept the postcode lottery whereby 48% of 18-year olds in Cardiff North went to university last year but only 17% of 18-year olds in Torfaen. 

And I will not lead a government which willingly funds the loss of skills and talent by paying for our young people to study outside Wales, without thinking how we can hold on to or attract back that talent and support OUR Universities.

“Education, education, education” became a mantra once. I’ll make it really mean something in Wales under a Plaid government.

Because no child deserves to be left behind – and that should be their right wherever they are in the world.

Friends, we were sickened to the core by the atrocities committed by Hamas two years ago, just as we’ve been sickened by the scenes of sheer inhumanity unfolding in Gaza every single day since.

And we’ve been appalled by those failing to call out these scenes for what they truly are – a genocide and a man-made famine. 

There is a moral vacuum at the very top of the world order – we need Prime Ministers and Presidents to speak truth, to condemn Netanyahu and his war cabinet for their crimes and to demand justice and peace for the Palestinian people.

Journalists targeted for daring to have a voice.

Medics prevented from saving lives. 

Families facing starvation.

And babies taking their last breath before uttering their first word.

The first stage of the Gaza peace deal is hugely significant, bringing relief to the families of the Israeli hostages and the civilians of Gaza who have suffered unimaginable horror.

A ceasefire must only be the first step towards a just and lasting peace through a two state solution.

History will remember not just what was said and done, but what was not.

“It’s none of your business – focus on Wales,” some will say.

But let me be clear – I will never apologise for speaking out against injustice, against inhumanity, and against inaction ... wherever they occur.

That is who we are as a party – proudly internationalist, we see no borders where we see suffering.

Let us continue to ask proudly “what can we do to help?” not “where are you from?”.

So whilst the Prime Minister continues to pander to Reform’s backward populism, Plaid Cymru will take no part in their race to the bottom – because that’s a race without a winner. 

We don’t have to live in a society in which the asylum seeker forced to get by on £10 a week is scorned more than the top 40 families in the UK who now own more wealth than 50% of the population. We need a wealth tax and we need one now.

We can do things differently in Wales.

We don’t have to believe Westminster when they tell Wales “this is your lot” and that we should be ever grateful for what we’re given.

And we don’t have to become accustomed to the familiar numbness which now goes hand in hand with learning that child poverty rates have gone up, yet again, or waiting lists longer, the economy misfiring.

Let’s be clear. We’re not here to act as Labour’s conscience. We are not here to repair Labour. We are here to replace them.

We promises a new government, with new energy and new ideas to prove what every person who believes in Wales already knows – that things don’t have to be this way.

Plaid Cymru believes deeply in our potential as a nation.  We say ‘Yes, Wales Can’ AND we want to show you how.

It’s why Plaid Cymru, in government, WILL kick-start the national debate on independence. It’s because we want the people of Wales to be the authors of our story. It’s your call!

In developing a prospectus for a new Wales, we’ll build on the excellent work of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales by establishing a Standing Commission.

It's not just about aspiration, it’s about creating the best chance to build a modern nation of good health, opportunity, prosperity, and fairness.

And it’s about Wales being part of an ever more interconnected world, where we need to both evolve and strengthen relations with our nearest neighbours whilst forging new ones too. And it should absolutely mean closer ties with Europe, within the Single Market and Customs Union. That IS the future! 

But we are ready to govern Wales right now. And deal with the issues we are faced with today. And to everyone in Wales I say this - now is our chance to build an alliance for change.

Our nation’s politics has always relied on cooperation – finding common ground and consensus, just like most other European countries.

But this time we must find that common ground before casting our vote, not after it.

A coalition of the people, not of politicians; united by progressive values, unhindered by tribalism and unwilling to allow the forces of ignorance and intolerance to triumph.

For Health, Opportunity, Prosperity and Equality – we can make hope prevail.

I bawb yng Nghymru dwi’n gofyn i chi ddychmygu o’r newydd.

Dechrau newydd.

Dyfodol newydd.

Arweiniad newydd.

Dros ein plant, dros ein hiaith, dros ein cymunedau, dros ein cenedl.

Conference, the old age of Labour rule is at an end.

The dial is shifting.

The hourglass will soon be turned.

The house built on sand is about to be washed away.

Wales can be reborn – around the values which drive me every day to work for you and with you to build a better Wales.

It won’t happen overnight.

It won’t be without its challenges.

But it will be worth every effort, every difficult decision.

A new age for Wales unburdened by Labour’s conservatism.

Ambition no longer taboo. 

Poverty no longer tolerated.

Our nationhood no longer doubted.

Our people no longer in despair.

So if you’ve never voted for Plaid Cymru before, the time is now.

The time is now to stop Reform and elect a government more radical, more ambitious, more impatient to bring about positive change than any which has gone before it. A government of progress and of progressive values.

A government on the side of families, teachers, nurses, farmers, business-owners.

Young and old.

Urban and rural.

North and south.

Welsh speaker. Non-Welsh speaker.

Life-long supporter and first-time voter.

The time is now to forge new allegiances for a brighter future. 

With your support, we can give our nation the new leadership it needs and the respect it deserves.

For good health, for opportunity, for prosperity, for equality and for Wales.

That is the future within our grasp, let’s realise it together.

Diolch yn fawr.