Ex-Senedd Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas rejoins Plaid Cymru nearly seven years after quitting

The Senedd’s former Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas has rejoined Plaid Cymru, nearly seven years after he quit the party that he once led.

In an exclusive interview with ITV News Wales, Lord Elis-Thomas said he views the move as “his return home” and credits a “different direction” under the party’s new leader Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Mr ap Iorwerth has not commented yet on the news but has said separately that “it’s always great to welcome people back".

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson says that "We can confirm that Dafydd Elis-Thomas has made an application to re-join Plaid Cymru. His application will be considered.”

It is a big step for the man who was once the leader of Plaid Cymru.

When he quit in 2016, he accused Plaid Cymru of being unwilling to play a serious role in forming a Welsh Government.

From the start of the devolution era, Dafydd Elis-Thomas played a pivotal role, becoming the then National Assembly’s first Presiding Officer and working with senior UK Government figures to develop it further than it was originally envisaged.

He first represented Plaid Cymru as an MP in 1974 and led it throughout the 1980s.

But he later had a troubled relationship with his party, particularly during the leadership of Leanne Wood, criticising her publicly for a speech attacking UKIP and criticising the 2015 General Election strategy.

When he left Plaid Cymru in October 2016, he accused the party of being unwilling to play a serious role in a Welsh Government by working with other parties.

He faced considerable criticism from within the party for his decision, including from the man who is now leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth.

He told BBC Wales that Dafydd Elis-Thomas had stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in Dwyfor Meirionnydd “and there's an element of breaking that trust” with voters.

Lord Elis-Thomas then sat as an independent Assembly Member but in 2017 became a member of the Welsh Government, acting as Deputy Culture Minister to Carwyn Jones and Mark Drakeford.

In an exclusive interview with ITV News Wales, he said that he left because he "thought it was very important that the parties of the centre-left should be working together at all times to just to protect the institution from those who would seek to undermine it in the early days”.

When I asked him if he thinks that’s changed under the leadership of Rhun ap Iorwerth, he said “it certainly has".

"And my request to rejoin the party, which I understand has been accepted, was something that I had discussed with him.

“I'm a longstanding friend of his, and I've supported everything that he's been saying after taking the leadership when he is most definitely now taking Plaid leadership in a different direction."

Mr ap Iorwerth hasn't commented yet on Dafydd Elis-Thomas' return but has made it clear that he sees this period of his leadership as an "opportunity for a reset".

In a video from the Denbigh and Flint Show that he posted online yesterday, he said that "we've had people join the party today, some new members, also welcoming back some members who've left in the past. Always great to welcome people back".

Lord Elis-Thomas insists that he’s not expecting any role or title in return, saying that “I’ve got a title, thank you very much".

That title is a peerage: he sits as a cross-bencher or independent in the House of Lords. But he says he’d be “very happy if invited to resume that relationship with my … lifelong colleague and friend [Lord] David Wigley”.

But he recognises that some people will not welcome him back, saying that “Well, some people have always been unhappy with some of the things that I've said or done in the direction that I pursued.

“But because I'm not pursuing anything anymore at this age, this is my return home if you like.”

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