What did Adam Price tell Plaid Cymru's spring conference?

That was the message from party leader Adam Price to its spring conference at the Principality Stadium where he sought to position the party as driving forward social and democratic change in Wales. 

Price told the conference, in one of the stadium’s hospitality lounges: “We didn’t win the election. But as so often in our history we dusted ourselves down and resolved to win the argument instead. 

“We snatched our moral victory from the mawing jaws of defeat.” 

Even when trying to reassure members their party aims to be in government he accepted the reality of its situation is that it aims to pressure those in power. 

He spoke of a “long revolution” to craft the Wales it wants to see and seemed, after spending the year leading to last year’s elections talking up its chances of victory, that it too must play the long game in its ambition to form a government. 

“But we will never win by standing on the side-lines. Our place is to be in government, or, at the very least influencing it as much as our numbers will allow” 

Speaking in Welsh, Price said, there there could be “no hidding” that last year’s Senedd results were disappointing but he said there could also be no doubt the Welsh people had said that “self government is here to stay”. 

He told the party faithful it is no surprise that “Welsh people trust the Welsh Government to act in the best interests of Wales far more than the Westminster government in London.” 

Plaid and the ruling Welsh Labour Party are in the early days of a cooperation agreement meaning Plaid has a direct stake in the fortunes of the government and is, in some ways, a compromised critical voice. 

In his keynote address he said it was right to thank the first minister for his efforts during the Covid pandemic and credited his leadership for winning respect for Welsh self-governance. 

The tone of Price’s speech to the party's first in person gathering since the pandemic, and which is being held just under a year since Labour reasserted its dominance of Welsh domestic politics at the Senedd polls, was on boosting support for Welsh democracy.

He said the party’s aim is to create a “new, united Wales” and called the pandemic, “in some ways a crash course in nation-building.” 

He praised the Welsh football team, which secured a vital World Cup play-off victory last night, for putting its ‘together stronger’ message into practise: “A national side, that took the knee against racism, that has agreed to pay parity between men and women in the national side. And sees achieving equality as the key to achieving success.” 

His biggest criticisms, and the boxer’s son’s direct jabs, were aimed at the Conservatives in Westminster over “expensive cosy contracts”, the cost of living and of course lockdown parties. 

There was criticism of Labour, over the performance of the health board in the north, the need for “more sensitivity” towards rural Wales and a gentle nudge that a Wales specific Covid inquiry would be a symbol of “confidence in our young democracy”. 

But the theme of Price’s speech was on common ground with the Labour government. Criticism, from The Daily Telegraph, the two parties had agreed on “the enactment of a socialist/nationalist agenda for which the Welsh people did not vote” was dismissed with the citation that Plaid and Labour won 60 per cent of the vote in 2021. 

Adam Price takes to the stage for his speech at Plaid Cymru's spring conference. Picture: Plaid Cymru

Plaid, he said, has “moved the Welsh Overton Window” - citing policies from free school meals, the constutational commission, to a national energy company and even a national gallery. These are "clothes Labour has stolen from Plaid". 

He said that has created the platform for a new enhanced, more powerful Senedd. He said “We are about to create a modern, fully functioning Senedd, inclusive and diverse, greater in size but greater still in purpose,  a Senedd that can truly represent our nation, that will look nothing like Westminster and begin to see itself as the parliament of a soon-to-be-independent country. 

“We’ll need a two-thirds majority on the floor of the Senedd, but  with our super-majority for self-government, we have the numbers, and history is on our side.” 

He chided Labour, asking “who are the leaders now?" But he returned to his principle of the bigger picture: “Won’t everyone have won when we wake up together in an independent Wales? Politics to me is not about who wins or who loses, it’s about doing big things together.” 

The flagship local election policy of aiming to provide free school meals to all secondary school pupils within the next five years was another area in which he hopes to pile pressure on Labour: “We challenge Labour-led councils to follow us. 

“Where we lead, they always come – eventually.” 

• This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.