The Welsh first minister has urged Plaid supporters, and others seeking progressive politics, to support Ed Miliband
Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones will today call on all Welsh voters who want rid of the Tories to rally behind Labour at the General Election.
Ahead of a speech in Ammanford in Carmarthenshire, Jones has urged supporters of Plaid Cymru and others seeking progressive politics to support Ed Miliband.
In echoes of similar appeals made by Labour to SNP voters in Scotland, the first minister said:
“In every constituency I’ve visited in Wales someone has told me they’re coming back to Labour after years of voting for other parties – or they’re saying they are lending us our vote this time to kick out the Tories.
“A progressive alliance of Welsh voters is building up and we want more people to join.”
Appealing to this alliance to stick together, he went on to say:
“The vast majority of voters, up to 75 per cent of them in Wales, will be going to the polls in less than two weeks with one big thing in common – they want an end to Tory rule at Westminster.
“But many of them are going to wake up disappointed if we let the Tories in the backdoor by splitting the progressive vote where Welsh Labour can win.”
He continued:
“There are seats right across Wales – particularly in North and West Wales – where a slight shift from Plaid Cymru, the Greens and the Liberals will give us a real chance of getting a vital handful more Labour MPs into parliament.
“An extra two or three Welsh Labour MPs, with Welsh Labour values, could mean the difference between banning zero hours contracts, or not – scrapping the bedroom tax, or not – ending the war on Wales, or not.”
According to the most recent Welsh Political Barometer published earlier this month, the Labour Party is now on 40 per cent of the vote in Wales, up just under four percentage points on the 2010 election.
Replicated across Wales, this would mean Labour picking up an additional two seats in Wales compared to the 26 they currently hold, taking Cardiff Central from the Liberal Democrats and Cardiff North from the Conservatives.
The Conservatives, according to the poll, are on 26 per of the vote, about the same that they secured in 2010. Such a result would see them maintain their current tally of eight Welsh MPs, with the loss of Cardiff North offset by picking up Brecon and Radnor from the Lib Dems.
On 12 per cent of the vote, Plaid Cymru appear to have made little progress from 2010, on course simply to retain the three seats they held in the last House of Commons.
Such a position would disappoint Plaid HQ, where leader Leanne Wood has made clear her desire to see the party achieve its best ever result for a Westminster election.
The Lib Dems meanwhile remain in dire straits in Wales, polling at six per cent, down from the just over 20 per cent of the vote they secured in 2010. Under such a scenario they would lose all but one of the three Welsh seats they are defending, keeping only Ceredigion.
Although UKIP are on 13 per cent and the Greens on four per cent this would not, according to the analysis by the Elections in Wales blog, give them any Welsh representation at Westminster.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
3 Responses to “Jones calls for an anti-Tory alliance in Wales”
littleoddsandpieces
Labour is an austerity party, that has backed the £30 billion more cuts yet to come fromt he Tories.
The Labour cannot win this election.
326 MP minimum threshold to form a UK parliament, will not be reached by either Tory or Labour.
Tories are obliged by the rules of UK parliament, to remain in power in a caretaker government.
Even if Labour managed to take some seats from the Tories on Thursday 7 May and had more seats than the Tories.
WALES IS BETTER WITH PLAID CYMRU AND A FEW TUSC
Vote Plaid Cymru in all of Wales, save the few TUSC MP candidates in South Wales, that would give 2 sides to the Welsh Assembly without the big parties being in there at all.
TUSC is the sacked from Labour party, who were thrown out of the party for voting against austerity cuts.
TUSC ALWAYS votes against council austerity cuts.
PLAID CYMRU – WALES
What they offer:
Against implementing Universal Credit.
Abolish Bedroom Tax.
Oppose rise in retirement age.
Further devolution of welfare by developing
Welsh employment and benefits sytem,
involving disabled people and groups that represent the interests of disabled people
in designing and developing such systems.
Remove penalties for using pre-payment meters
for energy bills
for lowest fixed income poor.
Promote adapted housing,
allowing residents to stay in own homes or
specially built accommodation, rather than move into care.
Promote Extra-care housing and work with councils to ensure Disabled Facilities Grants and Care and Repair adaptions implemented.
More Rural GPs and District Nurses.
Train up 1000 new doctors for Wales.
PLAID CYMRU LOOKING AFTER DISCHARGED SOLDIERS
Support war veterans with after-care for military personnel after leaving forces, including legal advice, healthcare and counselling support by reinforcing the Military Covenant by a
Military Well-Being Act.
WALES TUSC – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Southmost Wales MP seats
ABERAVON
TUSC
OWEN HERBERT
16,073 Labour win in 2010
19,880 did not vote
5,034 votes wasted on Lib Dems
BRIDGEND
TUSC
Aaron David
Labour win 13,931 in 2010
20,353 did not vote
8,658 votes wasted on Lib Dems
CARDIFF CENTRAL
TUSC
Steve Williams
Lib Dem win 14,976 in 2010
25,014 did not vote
10,400 votes wasted on Labour
CARDIFF SOUTH AND PENARTH
TUSC
Ross Saunders
Labour win 9,193 in 2010
56,383 DID NOT VOTE – A NATIONAL RECORD SO FAR FROM RESEARCH
2,103 votes wasted on Lib Dems
CARDIFF WEST
TUSC
Helen Jones
16,893 Labour win in 2010
21,829 did not vote
7,186 votes wasted on Lib Dems
SWANSEA WEST
TUSC
Ronnie Job
12,335 Labour win in 2010
25,741 did not vote
11,831 votes wasted on Lib Dems
TUSC KEY PLEDGES
Reverse Rise in Retirement Age
End cuts and austerity
Increase minimum wage to £10
Scrap zero-hours contracts
Introduce rent controls
Mass council house building programme
Scrap student fees
Public ownership of NHS, railways, public services, utilities and banks
TUSC NOT JUST RUNNING IN WALES
135 TUSC candidates running in Wales, Scotland and 113 in England. 619 TUSC council candidates.
PLAID CYMRU / TUSC WALES –
SNP AND TUSC SCOTLAND –
EQUAL A MASSIVE UP TO 250 NEW ANTI AUSTERITY MPs
in UK GOVERNMENT
EQUAL IN NUMBER TO ANY POTENTIAL NUMBER OF TORY OR LABOUR MPs in UK PARLIAMENT
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
Guest
You don’t want them to win, same old.
Arizona
Wales has been badly served by Labour. Look at the crisis in the Welsh NHS where patients are crossing the border into England to get treatment. Look at the high unemployment and deprivation and benefits dependency culture, where Labour would rather people were poor and on benefits because they know that’s where their votes come from.