ADAM Price has said, as Plaid Cymru leader, he cannot comment on Leanne Wood's call for MP Jonathan Edwards to be permanently excluded from the party. 

The MP, who currently sits as an independent, was suspended for a year by Plaid Cymru after accepting a caution for assault at his home in May 2020.

Mr Price was appearing on the BBC’s Politics Wales programme when he was questioned about comments his predecessor Leanne Wood made in her column yesterday on our sister site The National. 

In her column Ms Wood said the party should permanently exclude Mr Edwards who represents Carmarthen East and Dinefwr in Parliament, the same seat Mr Price represents in the Senedd. 

Ms Wood wrote: “If Plaid Cymru is serious about stamping out misogyny and domestic abuse, there can be no way back for him either.” 

At present Mr Edwards remains an independent MP having not sought to rejoin the Plaid Cymru group in Westminster when his one year party suspension was completed in July last year. 

You can read Leanne Wood's exclusive column in full here.

Presenter James Williams put Ms Wood’s comments that “the message of permanent exclusion would be a positive one and signal change” to Mr Price and asked, “how do you respond to that?” 

The Plaid leader then said party rules meant he couldn’t comment on a specific case. 

He said: “The party responded swiftly in that individual case and, as you know James, I’m precluded under the rules of our party from making any public statement in relation to specific cases. They are decided in our party by the membership, standards and disciplinary committee.” 

Mr Williams then interjected: “And that committee hasn’t decided to permanently exclude him.” 

Mr Price continued: “Former leaders and all other members of Plaid Cymru are free to comment, I as the leader cannot.” 

Mr Edwards was suspended from Plaid in July 2020, two months after he was arrested at his home. 

He was arrested in May 2020 and had accept a police caution for assault. 

In a statement released on behalf of Jonathan Edwards at the time he said: "I am deeply sorry. It is by far the biggest regret of my life.”  

A statement on behalf of his wife Emma Edwards said she had accepted his apology and said: "As far as I am concerned the matter is now closed." 

Plaid’s leader was also asked to respond to Wood’s comments that Plaid’s “codes of conduct and disciplinary procedures... are failing women”. 

Mr Price said: “I agree misogyny has no place in our politics I’m appalled at the stories we’ve seen recently. We have to accept this is universal throughout society.” 

He said as leader he had put in place a “whole set” of policies to look at how “we become an inclusive party” including commissioning Senedd Member Sian Gwenllian to conduct an investigation into the experiences of women in our party. 

“As a result of that we are implementing a whole series of measures to ensure Plaid Cymru becomes a safe and inclusive space for women. We want to be the party of all of Wales and we don’t want to see any discriminatory culture or practice within our party and its absolutely essential we continue to implement those proposals.”