Plaid Cymru launches Senedd election manifesto
The nationalist party has also renewed its pledge to hold an independence referendum should Plaid form the Welsh Government.
Plaid Cymru has unveiled its manifesto for the Senedd elections and pledged to implement the most radical programme since the 1945 Labour government.
Party leader Adam Price is promising to create 60,000 green jobs, extend free school meals to all primary age pupils, cut council tax bills and build 50,000 homes.
On the NHS, Plaid is planning on recruiting an extra 1,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses and other health professionals – and guaranteeing a £10 an hour minimum wage for care workers.
“In this manifesto we pledge ourselves to building a nation that delivers the opportunity of a decent life and brighter future for all,” Mr Price said ahead of the launch.
“For the first time in a Senedd election the people of Wales will be able to vote to take their own future into their own hands.
“We believe independence to be the only sure and sustainable means to achieving social and economic progress.
“So, a Plaid Cymru government will empower the people of Wales to decide the future of our nation in an independence referendum.
“We are not the country that we should be. We are not the country that we can be. And we are not the country we want to be.”
Among the other policies within the manifesto are a youth jobs guarantee for 16 to 24-year-olds, zero interest loans to support small businesses to bounce back from the pandemic, and recruiting 4,500 extra teachers and support staff.
The party said the manifesto had been fully costed and independently verified by two economists.
Mr Price said that “Westminster will never work for Wales” and said it would be better if Wales was independent of the UK.
“Wales has incredible potential as a nation. The problems that we have had for generations are not inevitable,” he said.
“We can solve these problems, together. But the first step is electing a new Government that has the ambition to build a new Wales that’s better than the old.
“Westminster will never work for Wales. We inhabit different universes. In ours we want to reward our healthcare workers.”
