Labour-Plaid Cymru government deal will change Wales, says Adam Price
Plaid Cymru's agreement with the Welsh Government will make Wales even more different to other parts of the UK over the next few years, according to the party's leader.
Adam Price signed a cooperation agreement with Mark Drakeford at the beginning of December to deliver a set of policies.
It falls short of more traditional forms of multi-party arrangements - Plaid Cymru isn't joining Labour in a coalition government and won't have ministers. It says it will continue to oppose the Welsh Government in some areas.
The deal has been criticised by the Conservatives who have warned it could undermine the way the Senedd operates.
And the UK Government’s Welsh Secretary Simon Hart told ITV Wales he believes “voters will rumble” what he said was an “absolute travesty” of an arrangement.
Adam Price has defended the arrangement in the latest episode of the New Normal with Adrian Masters.
He told the podcast: "It is a political agreement between a government and an opposition party. Plaid Cymru remains an opposition party."
And he claims the public response has been positive.
"Overwhelmingly, I would say, people have responded very, very positively to this, both to many of the individual policies - there are some big ticket items like free school meals, which can obviously have an impact on many, many people.
"But people have just really responded well to the general idea itself; that it is possible despite Mark Drakeford and I having, still, many, many political disagreements on many other things that we've been able to set that aside and actually agree to work on some things.
"I think that people like that kind of cooperative politics."
Asked what he meant when he said that the agreement was a "down payment on independence," he said that a different kind of Wales "is presented in the heart of the cooperation agreement."
"Also the very concrete, tangible policies like free school meals and the extension of free childcare for two year olds means that we're going to look quite different and in just a few short years, both to the Wales of today, but also ... to the country next door, which is run by a fairly, in my view, regressive Westminster Conservative government.
"So in a sense, Wales is becoming more independent through its policies, and it will look different in terms of its social policies, a little bit closer to some of those Scandinavian countries where they are also practising this form of co-operative politics."
As well as politics, Adam Price talks about fatherhood, rethinking his priorities and reveals the TV box set that he's surprised himself by enjoying.
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