Plaid Cymru launch General Election manifesto with bid for £4bn HS2 compensation

• Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth launches his party's General Election manifesto.

Plaid Cymru has launched its General Election manifesto, calling for fairer funding for Wales including an extra £4billion from the HS2 rail project.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of the party and a member of the Senedd, launched the manifesto at an event in Cardiff on Thursday, 13 June.

The party is calling for windfall taxes on oil and gas companies, money “owed to Wales” in rail funding and for closer ties with the EU, which the country left following Brexit.

However, his speech did not mention Welsh independence, a founding principle of his party, and the concept does not appear until page 42 of the manifesto, saying the party will produce a "green paper" to set out how Wales could become an independent state.

Elsewhere, he called for a £20 a week increase to child benefit, which the party claims would take 60,000 children out of poverty, for powers over policing to be handed to the Senedd, and for Wales to have “greater powers over migration”, including Wales-specific visa schemes.

Mr ap Iorwerth said people feel “uninspired” by what the Conservatives and Labour have to offer, while his party will offer a “positive vision” for Wales.

He said: “As an internationalist party, unlike Labour and the Tories we in Plaid Cymru are not afraid to call out the disastrous consequences of severing ties with the world’s largest trading bloc.

“We have been clear, consistent and unequivocal in recent years that rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union are vital in order to mitigate the impact of Brexit on Welsh business and reduce overheads and administrative costs.”

Plaid, which had four seats in Westminster after the 2019 General Election, is fighting in all 32 constituencies across Wales, so would need to work with another party in Westminster to make its policies a reality.

After constituency boundary changes, Plaid is bidding to defend two constituencies - Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ceredigion Preseli - and hopes to gain target seats Caerfyrddin and Ynys Mon.

"The common thread which runs through this manifesto is fairness," said Mr ap Iorwerth, who was appointed Plaid leader 12 months ago.

"Firstly, fair funding for Wales. Plaid Cymru is the only party advocating for the abolition of the Barnett formula which has seen Wales lose out to the tune of billions of pounds now over the years.

"It's not a begging bowl, it's just doing what's right - enabling investment in public services and the economy."

But when challenged by ITV Wales on how they would deliver these pledges, when Rhun ap Iorwerth himself says they will not be in power, he said "Somebody's got to be making the case.

"The problem that we have in Wales, and it's on HS2, it's on crime and policing, is that we've persuaded many Labour members in the Welsh Parliament to agree with us, yet Labour on a Uk level are refusing to do it.

"Somebody's got to make the case, and if Labour won't Plaid Cymru will."

HS2 and the Barnett Formula

The Barnett Formula, first introduced ahead of the 1979 General Election, is used by the UK Treasury to calculate the annual block grants for the Welsh and Scottish governments, and the Northern Ireland executive. It determines the overall funding available for public services like healthcare and education in the devolved nations.

Mr ap Iorwerth said that scrapping the formula in favour of a needs-based model was "essential if we want to be able to adequately fund our public services" and that it should be the "bare minimum" of what the next UK Government offers Wales.

He criticised the UK Treasury’s decision to class the HS2 high-speed rail project as an “England and Wales” scheme despite the route being entirely in England – meaning Wales had lost out on billions in funding.

Because it was classed as England and Wales, the project did not trigger the mechanism which would normally see extra funding given to the devolved nation.

The Plaid Cymru leader said: "Because it's classed as an England and Wales project, Scotland and Northern Ireland are compensated. But there's not a single mile, a single inch of HS2 track in Wales and we get nothing.

"It's actually worse than that - we get less rail investment as a result and in line with usual compensation rules, Wales is owed some £4billion - just imagine what that could do in terms of transforming our public transport network nationwide."

In October, Rishi Sunak announced the cancellation of the parts of HS2 linking England's West Midlands to Manchester and the East Midlands. He also unveiled a plan to electrify the north Wales rail mainline, which would use £1billion previously earmarked for HS2.

The Plaid leader added: “Let me be clear, this appeal for fair funding isn’t driven by ideology but by principle.

“Remember, there’s nothing inevitable about our poverty and nothing intrinsic to our people which means we cannot create a thriving economy and world-class public services, given the tools we need.

“So, to the next UK Government we say this – show you’re serious about Wales and resolve the long-standing fair funding issues.”

Fairer funding system

Mr ap Iorwerth says the party will demand a "fair funding system for Wales, based around our needs".

The manifesto outlines the party's calls for funding Westminster which would give the Welsh Parliament the power to make more decisions about what happens here.

The party leader said: "We will address the cost-of-living crisis and provide Welsh solutions to Welsh problems."

He added: "For Wales, 14 years of Tory cuts and chaos have cut our public services to the bone but there is no sign that a Labour government will offer any meaningful change either.

"Our communities have been left to pay the price of decades of underinvestment from both London parties."

Crown Estate

The manifesto also details plans to devolve the Crown Estate.

The Crown Estate is the property portfolio which belongs to the King. All the money it makes goes directly to the UK Treasury. Plaid want to see the money made from the estate in Wales go instead directly to the Welsh Government.

"Plaid Cymru will fight for economic fairness by increasing windfall taxes and demanding the transfer of powers over the Crown Estate to create green jobs and build prosperity," said Mr ap Iorwerth.

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