Plaid Cymru says it’s the only Welsh party to ‘unequivocally’ back People’s Vote

Adam Price at the Plaid Cymru election launch. Photograph: Fflur Arwel/Plaid Cymru. - Credit: Archant

Plaid Cymru has launched its European election campaign with leader Adam Price saying its party is the only one in Wales to ‘unequivocally’ back a confirmatory referendum.

Price said he wanted a future Wales to remain in the EU as a member state, saying Brexit only involved ‘moving power from one end of the Eurostar to the other.’

The Plaid Cymru leader used the campaign launch in Cardiff to say that his party was the only in Wales to ‘unequivocally’ back a fresh EU referendum, and said he wanted to bring an end to Wales being ‘voiceless and powerless’, by freeing itself from the UK.

Price said: ‘We passionately want to remain in order to change Wales’ future place and prospects inside the European Union.

‘We want to stay in Europe so we can change it, not just for ourselves, but for the future of Europe itself.

‘We are a party born of the Welsh nationalist tradition, most certainty. We seek independence for our country. But we want that independence so we can participate directly in the wider world, first and foremost as part of the European family of nations.’

Price said it was a ‘fantastic metaphor’ that Theresa May was left ‘voiceless and powerless’ at last month’s EU Summit as European leaders discussed giving the UK a Brexit extension, saying: ‘That’s where Wales has been for centuries.’

He added: ‘Brexit does not represent taking back control for our people. It involves moving power from one end of the Eurostar to the other. At neither end of which do we currently have a seat at the top table.

‘We’ve spent too long as a nation in the anterooms of history. It’s time to throw open the doors of our future and take our seat at the table. We want to be listened to because this is our world too, and we have something to say.’

Price called Labour’s commitment to a People’s Vote ‘slippery, two-faced, and unreliable’, and appealed for Labour voters in Wales wanting to remain in the EU to back his party in the election.

MORE: ‘Young people have the power to swing these elections’ says Plaid Cymru’s youngest candidate

He also linked Brexit with threatening European co-operation to combat climate change, saying he was in favour of the recent Extinction Rebellion protests in London.