Plaid Cymru asks Welsh voters in England to support Green party

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/28/plaid-cymru-voters-england-support-green-party

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Plaid Cymru peer Lord Dafydd Wigley has called on Welsh people living in England to vote for the Green party in the UK general election and Green party supporters in Wales to consider voting for his party.

Speaking at a press conference in Westminster on Wednesday, Wigley, who was leader of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru from 1991 to 2000, said the 400,000 people living in England who describe themselves as either Welsh or Welsh/British should “seriously consider” voting for the Green party, particularly in the party’s 12 target constituencies.

“This proposal is made without any suggestion of a formal quid pro quo, still less a joint campaign,” he said. “However, in Wales, where Green candidates may be standing in constituencies where Plaid Cymru either hold or have a realistic chance of winning the seat, voters who support the Green agenda should consider voting Plaid Cymru – in order to strengthen the joint team in the new parliament.”

He said the Green party doesn’t realistically expect to win seats in Wales, but that it would be arrogant to expect the party to ask its Welsh supporters to vote for Plaid Cymru. He pointed out that none of the Green party’s 12 target seats are in Wales and none of his party’s six target seats are in England or Scotland. Plaid Cymru currently has three seats in Westminster.

“This is not a call for a formal election pact, as it would be arrogant for any politician to think that they can trade people’s votes. It is, however, a constructive suggestion to maximise the impact of the three parties [the Scottish National party being the third] in the new House of Commons,” said Wigley.

He said that Plaid Cymru has a strong, effective working relationship with the Greens in Brussels, where both parties are members of the progressive European Free Alliance. Pointing to issues such as austerity, the Trident missile programme and moving political power away from Westminster, Wigley argued that, although the Green party is a political party in its own right, there is significant overlap in the two parties’ policies.

Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green party, welcomed the statement. She said: “We are separate parties with separate programmes, but the way in which we work together on policies on which we agree in the House of Commons, and as part of the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament, is building a new model of politics that we need for the new age of multiparty politics in Britain.

“The Wales Green Party, which is growing fast, continues to campaign for a green vision for Wales, and voters there will be able to make their choice after judging the parties, candidates and policies.”

Asked about whether his call would damage the Labour party and therefore improve the Conservative party’s chances of forming the next government, Wigley said people should make their own judgment about what is best in their own constituencies, but that he knows many former Labour voters are “dismayed” at Labour’s support of austerity. Of the Green party’s 12 target seats, five are held by the Liberal Democrats and five by the Labour party.

In December, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green party said they would unite wherever possible to combat the austerity policies of the three mainstream political parties.

At a meeting to discuss the possibility of a future coalition government after the general election in 2015, the three party leaders – the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, the Green party’s Natalie Bennett and Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood – said the next general election would be an opportunity to change politics and “battle the Westminster parties’ obsession with austerity”.

All three parties have previously said they would consider going into government together. None have ruled out a coalition with Labour; all three have ruled out forming a coalition with the Conservative party.

Polling on Tuesday suggested that only three of the 40 Welsh seats in Westminster would change hands at the next election. A YouGov poll for ITV Wales and the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University put Labour on 37% (+1% since early December), the Conservatives on 23% (no change), Ukip on 16% (-2%), Plaid Cymru on 10% (-1%), the Greens on 8% (+3%), the Liberal Democrats on 6% (+1%) and Others on 1% (-1%).