Only a vote for Plaid Cymru in Wales will help secure a Final Say referendum

A man holds Welsh and European flags outside the the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA. - Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

Plaid Cymru’s leader ADAM PRICE says his party has helped to turn the country from a Leave to a Remain country, and will continue to fight for a Final Say referendum.

We find ourselves on the cusp of a general election which has little promise of solving the Brexit crisis.

For precisely that reason, Plaid Cymru didn’t want an election. We’ve been clear that the only way to stop Brexit once and for all is to put it back to the people for their final say.

But thanks to Labour and the Tories working together, we find ourselves not fighting a referendum but an election. And we have to make it work for Wales.

That’s why I’m confirming today that Plaid Cymru will stand in this election on a policy of stopping Brexit by supporting a Final Say referendum with the option to Remain on the ballot.

Plaid Cymru is proud to be Wales’ leading party of Remain. As other parties have fallen into disarray and disputes over the European question, Plaid Cymru has remained consistently united and clear on Brexit over the past three years.

We want Wales to Remain in the European Union because we cannot and could never – in all conscience – support something that that will make the people of Wales worse off.

And we’ve got to be honest with people about that.

No form of Brexit will ever be good for Wales.

Not the prime minister’s deal and not a crash out ‘no deal’ either.

Wales is currently a net beneficiary of EU funding by around £245 million – that’s £79 per head. We get millions of funding per year from the European Union which has helped fund things such as work opportunities, infrastructure projects, rural development and community centres.

Are we seriously meant to believe that Westminster is going to make up that funding for Wales? I’m afraid they’ve neglected us for generations, and that’s not about to change.

Boris Johnson’s botched Brexit deal will create a hard border in the Irish Sea, putting Welsh port towns like Holyhead, Pembroke Dock and Fishguard at a serious disadvantage over ports in England and Scotland.

It will also take us out of the Single Market and Customs Union, resulting in a 5.5% fall in economic growth for Wales and the potential loss of 200,000 Welsh jobs which are based on trade within the Single Market and Customs Union.

Yesterday, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal would cost the UK economy as much as £70 billion over the next decade compared to remaining in the EU.

This hard Tory Brexit would devastate the livelihoods of thousands of people in Wales and throughout these islands.

We can’t just let that happen.

During the 2016 referendum there was no consensus on what leaving the EU actually looked like. And what’s worse, people were told untruths about what Brexit would mean for our communities.

Now we know what Brexit really is, it is only right we give people the choice of accepting the prime minister’s terrible deal or remaining in the EU – which is and always will be the best deal on the table.

Whilst Labour has wasted three years squabbling and arguing amongst itself, I’m proud that Plaid Cymru has always been honest with the people of Wales and consistent in our call for a Final Say Referendum.

Labour will say they support a people’s vote. But they’ve flipped-flopped so much over the past three years, who knows what they really believe?

They say that they want a final say referendum – but only one that will put their own fantasy Brexit deal on the ballot.

Let us be under no illusion. Labour is not a Remain party.

We have led the pro-European cause in Wales and in Westminster. We are the only party in Wales that has day-in, day-out worked to stop Brexit.

And if the last three years have shown us anything then it has shown that Westminster is broken and its establishment doesn’t care about Wales. But we will not allow them to leave Wales behind.

We will end Westminster’s Brexit chaos by giving the decision back to the people with a Final Say referendum – with remain and a defined Brexit deal on the ballot paper.

Plaid Cymru is ready and willing to take this fight to Westminster and campaign for Wales’ future as a confident, successful, and outward-looking European nation.

For too long, Wales has been held back by a Westminster establishment which knows little and cares less for our country. Now is the time to say no more.

In six weeks’ time, we face a choice. With Johnson and Corbyn, we can have more Brexit chaos, more stagnation, and more economic neglect.

But to end Brexit once and for all, to transform our country, and to build a new Wales, it’s us.

So, together, let’s back Wales – and back Plaid Cymru.