PLAID CYMRU AND REFORM UK - A TWO HORSE RACE

Plaid Cymru is leading the polls in Wales for the upcoming Senedd election with Labour falling even further behind, a new ITV Cymru Wales opinion poll has revealed.

The Barn Cymru poll conducted by YouGov for ITV Cymru Wales and Cardiff University, has revealed that Labour’s predicted vote share for the Senedd is now at its lowest at 14%, whilst Plaid Cymru are continuing to lead the polls with 30%. Reform UK is on 29% of the current vote share. 

The Senedd (Welsh Parliament) general election will be held on 7 May 2026.

The poll also highlights that support for Keir Starmer has plummeted, with 62% of those surveyed believing he is doing badly as Prime Minister. 

 

Senedd voting intention:

(YouGov MRP Model)

 

• Plaid 30% (n/c)
• Reform 29% (+4)
• Labour 14% (-4)
• Conservatives 11% (-2)
• Lib Dem 6% (-1)
• Green 6% (+1)
• Other 4% (+2)

Dr Jac Larner’s Seat Projection

 

• Plaid Cymru - 38
• Reform UK - 37
• Labour - 11
• Conservatives - 6
• Lib Dem - 3
• Green - 1

 

Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said,

“Be under no illusion: the choice at the next election is clear – it is between a divisive Reform party that don't care about Wales and would privatise our NHS, or a pro-Wales Plaid Cymru government that will stand up for Wales and deliver real change for the better for our communities.”

“Labour’s support is falling because voters want change.”

“People are overwhelmingly looking to Plaid Cymru for a better future for our country – one that is driven by Welsh values, that will deliver real results and stand up for fairness for Wales from Westminster.”

“We’re urging everyone who want to see the right kind of change – to back the only plausible choice for a positive, pro-Wales government by backing Plaid Cymru.”

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WHY VOTE PLAID CYMRU ?

💪 We’ll always stand up for Wales: While Labour refuse to challenge Keir Starmer over policies which actively harm Wales (two-child cap, HS2, cuts to disability benefits), Plaid Cymru will always stand up for Wales and fight for the  powers and funding we deserve.

💚 Dechrau teg i bob plentyn: Bydd Plaid Cymru yn rhoi’r dechrau gorau mewn bywyd i bob plentyn – drwy godi safonau yn ein hysgolion, cefnogi athrawon, a chyflwyno taliadau Cynnal i helpu teuluoedd gyda chostau byw.

🚑 Public services that work for everyone: Plaid Cymru will tackle the health and care crisis from day one - cutting waiting lists, investing in staff, and making care more local and accesible.

✨ Fairness and hope for our communities: While Labour offer more of the same and Reform offer cynical slogans, Plaid Cymru is focused on offering hope and fairness to our communities. It’s time for a government with answers to the problems facing our communities.

💷 A wealthier Wales: Plaid Cymru will build a Welsh economy that works for everyone - where money stays in our communities, wages are better, and small Welsh businesses can thrive.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The only pro-Wales choice: Labour and Reform won’t deliver for Wales. Plaid Cymru is the only credible, progressive choice - a party that puts Wales and our communities first, always.

Vote Plaid Cymru on 7 May 2026. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💚

POLLING BOOST FOR PLAID IN CAERPHILLY

The latest independent polling suggests Plaid Cymru has taken the lead in the upcoming by-election for the Senedd constituency of Caerphilly.

A major summer poll by Find Out Now found that Labour and the Conservatives had slumped, with support switching to Plaid Cymru and Reform.

Applying the standard Uniform National Swing (UNS) calculation to the poll projects that the result in the Caerphilly constituency would see Plaid on top with 35%, ahead of Reform on 29% and Labour trailing in third on 24%.

Three major companies – members of the industry-standard British Polling Council - have conducted Senedd polls in Wales over the summer. All the polls; by YouGov for ITV, More in Common for Sky News, as well as Find Out Now, show Plaid leading in Caerphilly by the UNS calculation.

Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth said,

“These polls echo what we’re hearing from Caerphilly. People are fed up of being taken for granted by Labour and the Tories.

“They know that Plaid’s Lindsay Whittle was a close second in the General Election last July, and are switching to support Plaid Cymru for this by-election.

“A large majority of people in Caerphilly don’t want Reform and their Trump-style brand of divisive politics. Labour are clearly trailing, so voters are turning to Plaid Cymru to send a message that Caerphilly and Wales won’t be taken for granted.”

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LINDSAY WHITTLE FOR CAERPHILLY

Plaid Cymru has chosen renowned local campaigner Lindsay Whittle to contest the forthcoming Senedd by-election in Caerphilly on 23 October.

Lindsay, who was brought up in Caerphilly and is a popular and long-standing councillor in Penyrheol and leader of the Plaid group on Caerphilly Council, was a close second to Labour in last year’s Westminster General Election. 

Plaid Cymru have since seen their support surge in national opinion polls.

“The circumstances of this by-election, which arose after the death of Hefin David, are of course tremendously sad and my thoughts remain with Hefin’s loved ones.” said Lindsay Whittle.

“The people of Caerphilly deserve a passionate local representative in the Senedd. I’m determined to offer a positive agenda, to give this area a fair deal.”

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said,

“Lindsay Whittle has a long record of standing up for his community and would be a real asset in the Senedd.

“People locally feel let down and taken for granted by the Labour Government.

"NHS waiting lists remain high. Schools are underfunded. Councils are struggling to deliver essential services.

"On top of the ongoing high cost of living, we’ve seen cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance and increases in National Insurance for small businesses. And Wales isn’t getting a fair deal on funding for public services.

“After 26 years of Labour, people are increasingly unhappy with how Wales has been run. They see overstretched services, wasted opportunities and little ambition and they’re looking for change.

“Voters in Caerphilly know that they can trust Plaid Cymru to put Wales’s interests first every time.”

- ENDS - 

TIME FOR ACTION ON COST OF LIVING

‘We were promised that things would be different under Labour, but the claim of change has failed to materialise’ - Liz Saville Roberts MP.

 

On Monday 1 September Plaid Cymru have called on the Labour UK Government to implement a number of measures as part of the Autumn 2025 budget to get to grips with the cost-of-living crisis.

As MPs return to Westminster today after the summer recess, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP says that although the cost-of-living crisis began under the Tories, “people aren’t any better off under Labour today either.”  

  

Plaid Cymru have outlined that in order to tackle this, the UK Government should:  

• Support households with the cost of energy and housing  
• Boost incomes and guarantee the basics  
• Fairly tax extreme wealth and bumper profit margins 

  

Energy and housing:

25% of households in Wales (340,000) are in fuel poverty. Current support like the Warm Homes discount has risen by only £10, while energy bills have increased by £500. Plaid Cymru is calling for energy support grants similar to the Energy Bills Support Scheme (2022/23) and targeted support for winter.

Around 70,000 households in Wales face a gap between rent and social security due to the bedroom tax and outdated Local Housing Allowance rates. Plaid Cymru urges the UK Government to scrap the bedroom tax and uprate the allowance to at least the 30th percentile of rents in Wales.

 

Income support:

Raising the personal allowance and unfreezing the basic income tax threshold would benefit the bottom 50% of taxpayers earning under £28,400. Plaid Cymru also calls for an Essentials Guarantee to ensure those on the lowest incomes can afford food, heating, and other essentials.

 

Fairer taxation:

Plaid Cymru opposes Labour’s increase in Employers National Insurance Contributions, which affects public sector recruitment, small businesses, and care homes, and is partly passed on to workers and consumers. The party urges a reversal and alternative revenue measures.

Plaid Cymru instead proposes a 2% annual wealth tax on assets over £10 million (£24 billion potential revenue) and equalising Capital Gains Tax with Income Tax (£12 billion potential revenue) to fund public services and reduce wealth inequality.

  

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP said:  

“The significant fall in living standards due to the rapid increase in the price of essential goods and services may have begun under the Tories, but people aren’t any better off under Labour today either. The increase in living costs continues to hit young people, families, and pensioners across every part of the UK.   

“But while ordinary people are struggling to make ends meet and to pay for the bare minimum such as food and housing, large corporations and the ultra-wealthy are racking up eye-watering profits. Energy network owners alone pocketed £3.9 billion in excess profits from high energy bills, money that came directly off the backs of ordinary people. And with further energy price increases expected this winter, the pressure on families and pensioners will only deepen, while those at the top continue to benefit.  

“We were promised that things would be different under Labour, but so far, the claim of 'change' has failed to materialise. Plaid Cymru has presented the UK Government with practical policies ahead of this year’s Autumn Budget that would truly get to grips with the rising living costs. These measures would provide direct support to households in our communities as well as tackle the growing wealth imbalance in the UK. It is time for those with the broadest shoulders to pay their fair share, and for communities across the UK to be given the security and support they need not only to get by, but to thrive.” 

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THE OVERLOOKED ANNIVERSARY

Just in case your missed it, Saturday 23rd August 2025 was the 86th anniversary of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact signed by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union in 1939, the anniversary has become the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes. It was on that day in 1939 that an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union opened the gate to Second World War and all kinds of totalitarian violence: from forced migration through slave labour and war crimes to genocide, including an event unprecedented in world history – the Holocaust. The 23rd August should rightly brings back the memory of millions those who fell victim to totalitarian regimes, including the inmates of Nazi concentration camps, death camps, Soviet gulags and Stalinist prisons. This anniversary probably passed unnoticed in the Russian Federation save behind closed doors.

LABOUR FAILING WALES ON HEALTH

Plaid Cymru MS, Mabon ap Gwynfor has criticised the Welsh Labour Government for never succeeding in hitting any of their Planned Care Recovery Plan targets. 

The latest data on waiting lists have shown that the targets for decreasing waiting lists set out in the Planned Care Recovery Plan have been missed once again. 

Five targets were set in the Planned Care Recovery Plan, created in 2022, to reduce or eliminate certain waits within the NHS in Wales. 

The targets in the Planned Care Recovery Plan are as follows: 

• No one waiting longer than a year for their first outpatient appointment by the end of 2022. 
• Since setting the target, it has never been met. 
• Eliminate the number of people waiting longer than two years in most specialities by March 2023. 
• Since setting the target, it has never been met. 
• Eliminate the number of people waiting longer than one year in most specialities by Spring 2025. 
• Since setting the target, it has never been met. 
• Increase the speed of diagnostic testing and reporting to eight weeks and 14 weeks for therapy interventions by Spring 2024. 
• Since setting the target, it has never been met. 
• Cancer diagnosis and treatment to be undertaken within 62 days for 80% of people by 2026. 
• Since setting the target, it has never been met. 

Mr ap Gwynfor explained how the statistics released today saw an ‘see-sawing of data [that] is completely unsustainable’. He referred to the fact that the percentage of cancer patients meeting the 62 day target had fallen this month, from 61.3% to 60.2%, both substantially below the 80% target.  

The Plaid Cymru health spokesperson said Labour were at fault for ‘normalising low expectations’, by celebrating the fact that the NHS is missing ‘already diluted’ targets, such as the First Minister’s target to reduce two year waits to 8,000 by Spring 2025, after failing to eradicate them by 2022 as originally hoped in the Planned care Recovery Plan. 

Mr ap Gwynfor went on to explain that Labour’s failure to reduce waiting lists are having adverse effects on the rest of the Government’s actions, with increasing amounts of money being spent on attempting to, and failing to reduce waiting lists - a total of £1.5bn in this Senedd term alone. 

In response to the waiting lists announced today, Plaid Cymru health spokesperson, Mabon ap Gwynfor, said: 

"Any progress is welcomed, but this see-sawing of data is completely unsustainable. The Government's response is to put an extremely expensive sticking plaster on a very deep wound.  

“The truth is that the waiting lists are a symptom of deeper problems within the health service, and until they get to grips with these problems - governance, social care, and primary care - then we will continue to see the figures see-saw up and down. 

“This is why Plaid Cymru have put together comprehensive plans Co-designed by clinicians and NHS managers to tackle the waiting lists in the short term, and fix the foundations for the long term. 

“The failure to meet the cancer targets again is especially concerning as we know that early treatment saves lives, which is why we need a comprehensive Cancer strategy for Wales, rather than the current muddled approach". 

On the Welsh Government failing to meet any targets since first set, Mr ap Gwynfor added: 

“Labour have never hit any of the targets for our NHS. Even worse, if you were to backdate the statistics to before the targets were set, they haven’t been hit for over a decade.

“Labour have had countless opportunities over decades to reduce waiting lists, but they continue to fail, even when compared against already diluted targets.

“People are waiting longer for treatment across Wales and are living in both physical and mental pain, yet Labour have attempted to normalise low expectations and are somehow claiming wins for non-existent progress.

“With over £1.5 billion spent on tackling waiting lists over this Senedd term and record numbers still waiting for treatment, it’s clear that Labour’s time is up after 26 years of failure. 

“The people of Wales deserve better, they deserve an NHS fit for purpose, they deserve new leadership. 2026 offers the people of Wales the chance for new leadership under Plaid Cymru, that will take seriously the challenges faced by our NHS, for a healthier Wales.”

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