“No more letters – Wales needs to make Westminster sit up and listen” following UK government plans to scrap Senedd law

The Leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price MS, has called for the power for Wales to hold a referendum on the right of its people to be able to decide on their own constitutional future.

The calls were made following Westminster marking its intention to repeal the Trade Union Act 2017 passed by the Senedd, which Mr Price says shows their “contempt not just for workers, not just for Wales, but for our democracy.”

In Questions to the First Minister, Mr Price pointed out that “Westminster wants it to be a relationship where they are in control and our Senedd is subservient; Where their Parliament is supreme and ours is subordinate” and called for “legally secure routes” for Wales to be able to decide the future of its own democracy.  

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has laid out her plans to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence, which she hopes will be on Thursday 19 October 2023, asking the question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

Leader of Plaid Cymru Adam Price MS said,

“In announcing, without a word to Welsh Government, their intention to repeal the Trade Union Act 2017 passed by our Senedd, Westminster have shown their contempt not just for workers, not just for Wales, but for our democracy. 

“This is not just one more in a long list of power grabs. It’s a turning point. It is potentially devolution’s breaking point. It rolls back the rights of citizens, but also it denies those citizens very right to decide their own future.

“There has to be a political response that will make Westminster sit up and listen. 

A strongly worded letter from the Welsh Government is not going to work. The First Minister’s response to the Westminster power grab is to hope for a Labour success in the next General Election, but what happens if Labour loses the next general election and the one after that?

“Plaid Cymru has a very simple answer to this situation which would remove Westminster’s right to run roughshod over our democracy permanently – not just in the brief interludes of a Labour Government once every twenty years: and that is independence.”

“If Labour is not prepared to back independence now, then surely they can back a consultative referendum on Wales’ constitutional future. If it’s framed as Wales versus Westminster then surely it’s a referendum that we can win?”