Matthew HorwoodPlaid Cymru has promised to publish a plan for Welsh independence – but not within the first term of a Plaid-led government.
At the party conference members endorsed leader Rhun ap Iorwerth’s proposal to set up a “standing commission” to talk to the public about the future of the country.
Members supported plans for the commission to prepare a white paper on Welsh independence, but ap Iorwerth told members that was not “for the next government”.
He did not give a date for when, but it suggests Plaid Cymru could pursue the idea if it won both the 2026 and 2030 Senedd elections.
Ap Iorwerth used the conference in Swansea to present his party as a government in waiting, saying it was ready to replace Welsh Labour at the next vote in May.
The party has already pulled back from its previous commitment to offer an independence referendum within five years, made at the last election in 2021 under former leader Adam Price.
Ap Iorwerth ruled out a referendum in the first term of a Plaid-led government back in May.
However, in Friday’s conference speech he said the party would “kick start the national debate on independence”.
Plaid’s annual conference on Saturday endorsed a motion that said Wales was “on a journey to independence, and that enhancing devolution could form part of that journey”.
It said a previous Welsh government-backed independent commission on Wales’ future was a “model for engaging people” on constitutional issues, with the party’s motion saying a standing commission should be set up to oversee the government commission’s recommendations.
Among other things, the government commission called for justice and policing powers to be given to the Welsh government, and for the full devolution of rail services – both decisions the UK government would need to take.
Independence was a viable option for Wales’ future, the commission had said, although it did not explicitly support it or any other option, with a caveat that independence meant “hard choices in the short to medium term”.
‘Formal path’
The conference motion said the standing commission would engage “citizens in an ongoing dialogue about constitutional issues” and research “issues of relevance to Wales’ constitutional future”.
It would also prepare a “white paper on Welsh independence”. The motion also said that the power to hold a referendum should be devolved.
A white paper is a document that details a government’s plans or proposals. The SNP published a white paper on its independence plans ahead of the 2014 Scottish referendum, in its second term of government.
BBC Wales was told the standing commission could begin gathering evidence for a white paper in a Plaid first term.
Proposing the motion to the conference on Saturday, Ap Iorwerth said: “The motion looks to the future… and the need ultimately for a white paper which would set the formal path towards asking the people of Wales in a referendum.
“We make it clear it is us that should call the referendum when the time is right.
“But that’s not for now or the next government.
“Our work now is to take the discussion forward on the next steps for Wales’s constitutional journey.”
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