PLAID Cymru have done the hard part, now they’re onto the even harder part.
Unseating Labour in Wales – the first time the party lost an election in the country in more than 100 years – was a huge task, but governing for the first time will be mammoth.
To smooth the transition, they are getting help from a friend of the party: Ian Blackford, former leader of the SNP in Westminster.
Blackford told the Sunday National: “I’m here to be a wise counsel if I can.”
The former MP has not served in government, but he can claim to have played a role in shaping the SNP into the political juggernaut they would become, having served as the party’s treasurer at the advent of the devolution era.
He was pushed out of that role during Alex Salmond’s time at the helm, who was unhappy with the former banker attempting to put the brakes on the party’s ballooning overdraft.
His ties with the party, which has a “fraternal” relationship with the SNP, were cemented during his time in Westminster, and since quitting London, Blackford has spent much of his time in Wales.
Blackford said his guidance is delivered on an ad hoc basis, but he hopes that by offering them advice, he can help them replicate the successes of the SNP, who also usurped Labour in another of their former heartlands almost 20 years ago.
This, Blackford reckons, is key to putting the party on the path to being able to eventually hold a referendum on Welsh independence, which Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has ruled out for their first term in power.
Blackford said: “If you think what happened in that period from 2007 to getting that overall majority in 2011, the SNP were on the side of the people of Scotland, if I can use that phrase, and I think demonstrated that we were worthy of the trust of the people, delivered that fantastic result in 2011, that overall majority and that then led us to being able to have that debate about Scotland’s future at the time of the independence referendum in 2014.
“I think there is a very strong narrative that equally applies to Wales because there’s an enormous opportunity because of what has happened, because of the absolute collapse of the Labour support.”
He campaigned for the party in the seismic Caerphilly by-election, which set the template for this year’s Senedd elections as Plaid strode to victory with Labour pushed into third place by an emergent challenge from Reform UK.
“The Caerphilly by-election demonstrated the effectiveness of Plaid, showing themselves to be that progressive alternative,” said Blackford.
Plaid’s mission now, as the former SNP MP sees it, is to prove to the people of Wales that they can be trusted to run the country, with their eyes set on the long-term goal of converting that approval into support for independence.
“There are lots of similarities with what we did in 2007, I guess it’s almost a mirror image in some respects,” Blackford said.
“I think the way that they’ve communicated that and I think the way that they’ve sort of said to people, ‘look, put us in power, give us the chance to show that we can govern, let us show that we’re worthy of the trust of the people’, and then you have that conversation as to the future of the country.”
But while there are similarities, Plaid face an even more difficult environment after years of budget cuts from Westminster, while the Tories dispensed with the niceties of the early years of devolution in favour of a more muscular version of Unionism.
Blackford said: “Of course, the circumstances are different. But what you’ve got is a dynamism, a freshness and I think that Rhun [ap Iorwerth] has demonstrated very, very strong leadership. I believe he’s got a strong ministerial team behind him.”
One way that Plaid could do this, in the SNP man’s eyes, is to make the arguments the party is currently pushing forward on fairer funding for Wales while also seeking to ensure “value for money” in the spending they control.
“I’m sure that just as we’re doing, with the job that Ivan McKee’s been given in the Scottish Government to get value for money to try and be more effective and I’m sure Plaid will have to do the same thing, because they’ll have to make sure that they get the best return on the investment that they make in public services,” he said.
While Plaid emerged as the biggest party at the election earlier this month, they are six seats short of a majority and will need to work with their opponents to pass budgets and get through their programme.
This may even lead them to seeking alliances with other parties, according to Blackford.
“I would say, for the here and now, Rhun [ap Iorwerth] is right to govern from where he is and as a minority government,” he said. “I think over the fullness of time, Rhun will have to give consideration to the electoral landscape that there is in Wales and how that’s affected the result in the Parliament and how he makes sure that he’s got that breadth of support to get his programme through.”
Blackford added: “You may find that there will be other members of the Senedd who can find alignment with the things that Plaid want to do.
“The last Labour budget was passed, Plaid abstained on the vote, but I think practical politics came into play because there were really important concessions that Labour made to Plaid in terms of spending commitments, that helped them in the transition to government.”
