Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru (Welsh, “party of Wales”), Welsh nationalist political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1925. The aims of the party are to secure self-government for Wales and a democratic Welsh state based on socialist principles; to safeguard the culture, language, traditions, environment, and economic life of Wales; and to gain for Wales the right to become a member of the United Nations.

A comparatively small movement during the first four decades of its existence, Plaid Cymru did not secure representation in the British Houses of Parliament until a by-election success in the Carmarthen constituency in July 1966. Membership grew rapidly during the late 1960s. Although the party lost the Carmarthen seat in the 1970 general election (in which it contested all seats in Wales for the first time), it returned two, and then three, Members of Parliament (MPs) in the February and October general elections of 1974.

This advance, together with significant electoral gains at local government level in the mid-1970s, was instrumental in the then Labour Party government's decision to establish an elected Welsh assembly. However, this devolution plan was defeated heavily in a referendum in Wales in March 1979, and Plaid Cymru suffered a further setback when it lost one of its parliamentary seats in the general election two months later.

Having maintained a comparable level of electoral backing through the 1980s, the party won 4 of the 38 Welsh parliamentary seats (Caernarfon, Ceredigion and Pembroke North, Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, and Ynys Môn) in the general election of April 1992. In the June 1994 direct elections to the European Parliament, the party did not gain any seats but took just over 17 per cent of the vote in Wales. In the 1997 general election Plaid Cymru gained 9.7 per cent of the Welsh vote and retained its four seats. The new Labour government held a referendum in Wales in September, in which the Welsh voted only cautiously for a separate Welsh Assembly. In the elections to the new assembly, held in May 1999, Plaid Cymru performed strongly, taking 17 seats and denying Labour a majority, although turnout for the poll was even lower than for the September 1997 referendum at 46 per cent of the Welsh population. Yet the 2001 general election saw mixed fortunes for the party, for although it gained one new seat (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr), from the Labour Party, it surprisingly lost another (Ynys Môn) to Labour, and finished with four seats, exactly their representation in 1997. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament the party saw its share of the vote in Wales fall significantly from 29.6 per cent in the 1999 election—its highest ever—to 17.4 per cent. It also saw its representation drop from the two seats won in 1999 to one, although this was largely the result of Welsh representation falling from five to four seats because of the readjustment of seats following the European Union enlargement that year. More disappointment followed at the 2005 general election, at which Plaid Cymru lost the seat of Ceredigion to the Liberal Democrats and failed to retake Ynys Môn.

Plaid Cymru MPs form a single parliamentary grouping in the House of Commons at Westminster with their Scottish National Party colleagues (following an agreement in 1987). The party is also a member of the European Free Alliance of European regional and national parties. At local level Plaid Cymru operates by means of branches and Rhanbarth committees (the latter being made up of branch delegates and corresponding normally to parliamentary constituency or local government boundaries). At national level, the party structure includes the annual conference, which is the supreme policy-making authority, and the National Council, which comprises mainly Rhanbarth delegates and is responsible for taking policy decisions between conferences. Party management and finances are controlled by the National Executive Committee. There are also party sections for women and young members, a student federation, and a councillors' association. Plaid Cymru is mainly dependent for its income on voluntary contributions. Members join the party either through its national office in Cardiff or through local branch organizations.

Prominent figures in the development of Plaid Cymru have included John Saunders Lewis, the party president between 1926 and 1939; Gwynfor Evans, who led the party between 1945 and 1981; Dafydd Elis Thomas, leader between 1984 and 1991; and Dafydd Wigley, president between 1981 and 1984, and again between 1991 and 2000. Since 2003 the leadership has been divided between three individuals: Dafydd Iwan, the president of Plaid Cymru; Ieuan Wyn Jones, the leader of the Plaid Cymru group in the Welsh Assembly; and Elfyn Llwyd, the leader of the Plaid Cymru parliamentary group at Westminster. The disappointing results of the 2005 general election led to some calls for the creation of a single leadership post.