Plaid Cymru and the Green party have launched their election campaigns, focusing on issues ranging from offshore windfarms’ profits to initiatives for improving water and air quality.
The parties, which hope to win about four seats each, vowed to keep a Labour government in check and to push the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, to be bolder in areas such as health, housing and the environment.
At Plaid Cymru’s launch in Bangor, the party’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts , said the party was intent on promoting new ideas such as devolving the crown estate to Wales so that profits from offshore wind projects could be diverted into tackling poverty.
Saville Roberts said Brexit was the “elephant in the room” during the election campaign and Plaid Cymru wanted the UK to rejoin the single market and customs union.
Plaid’s Cymru’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, took a swipe at the Tories and Labour, saying: “It’s time to kick the Tories out of power. They have left a trail of destruction and we cannot get rid of that government quickly enough. But the message is also abundantly clear that people don’t want Labour to be taking Wales for granted. For too long Wales has been overlooked by Westminster.”
Ap Iorwerth said his party would support a motion of no confidence in the first minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, a member of the Welsh Labour party, that has been tabled by the Welsh Conservatives.
Gething is under severe pressure for taking donations for his leadership campaign from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes.
Ap Iorwerth said: “We don’t have confidence in Vaughan Gething due to his actions in receiving the toxic donation. More important than that, I have no doubt he has lost the confidence of the Welsh people.”
The Greens, launching their campaign in Bristol where they have just taken over leadership of the city council, said the NHS, housing, climate and nature, water quality and public services were its priorities.
Asked by the Guardian how they could make a difference if the Greens ended up with just a few MPs, Carla Denyer, one of the party’s co-leaders, cited the example of the climate and nature bill put forward by the outgoing Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas.
Denyer, who is standing in Bristol Central, said: “It’s something that I and all Green party MP candidates have pledged to continue to work on if we get elected. We need policies that will go further, faster. We need policies that tackle the climate crisis and the nature crisis together.
“We know from the experience of our elected Greens at all levels of government, including our fantastic London assembly members and now over 800 Green party councillors across England and Wales, that even just one or two or a handful of Greens in the room can make all the difference. Greens can ask the questions no one else is asking, put forward the proposals that nobody else is putting forward.”
Denyer added: “People are disappointed by the way [Keir] Starmer has backtracked on his promises on green investment, his weak offer on housing, and now we have Wes Streeting telling us that more privatisation of the NHS is a good thing.
“The Conservatives are clearly on their way out of government but Labour is failing to offer the real change needed. We have the practical solutions to the cost of living crisis, building new affordable homes, protecting our NHS from creeping privatisation and cleaning up our toxic rivers and seas. That’s why it’s so important that when Labour form the next government, they are pushed beyond the tiniest change they are offering.”
She said the Greens would push for more and better housing. “I guarantee I will keep the pressure on Labour over fair treatment for renters and for warm, secure, affordable homes for everybody. We will push for the right homes to be built at the right price, in the right place, in consultation with the communities that need them.”
The Greens’ other co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, who is standing in Waveney Valley, East Anglia, said: “Only by having more Greens in parliament can we be confident that we’ll have the strong voices to stop the backsliding on the urgent climate action we so desperately need. You can trust the Greens to protect communities against flooding, clean up our filthy waterways and make sure all our children have clean air to breathe.”
