{"id":82344,"date":"2025-05-15T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=82344"},"modified":"2025-05-15T06:40:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:40:47","slug":"plaid-cymru-deserves-to-be-trouncing-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/05\/15\/plaid-cymru-deserves-to-be-trouncing-labour\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaid Cymru deserves to be trouncing Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

This exchange took place<\/a> during the course of Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday.<\/p>\n

For those who are not familiar with her, Liz Saville Roberts is a very experienced politician<\/a>\u00a0and the leader of Plaid Cymru in the House of Commons:<\/p>\n

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Liz Saville Roberts\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
(Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llefarydd. [Transaltion: Thank you very much, Speaker].<\/p>\n

This Prime Minister once spoke of compassion and dignity for migrants and of defending free movement. Now he talks of islands of strangers and taking back control. Somebody here has to call this out. It seems that the only principle he consistently defends is whichever he last heard in a focus group. So I ask him: is there any belief he holds that survives a week in Downing Street?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Prime Minister\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Yes, the belief that she talks rubbish.<\/p>\n

Mr Speaker\u2014[Interruption.] Mr Speaker, I want to lead a country where we pull together and walk into the future as neighbours and as communities, not as strangers. The loss of control of migration by the last Government put all that at risk, and that is why we are fixing the system based on principles of control, selection and fairness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019ve watched the video of this exchange, and Rachel Reeves erupted in laughter at the response. Very pointedly, Angela Rayner did not.<\/p>\n

I think there is a very good reason for the difference between those two and their reactions. Reeves sold her soul to neoliberalism, and all the abuse it promotes, at least a decade ago.<\/p>\n

In contrast, somewhere, deep inside her, I suspect that Angela Rayner retains some vestigial principles. She might also recognise abuse when she sees it, and that, very clearly, is what Keir Starmer delivered here.<\/p>\n

Liz Saville Roberts is a very long way from being a person who talks rubbish. The question she asked is one that has been on the lips of many over the last few days, and informed commentators without party political allegiance have certainly been raising it. She knows Starmer has no principles. So does he. She got under his skin by making that clear.<\/p>\n

So why did Starmer react in the way that you did? There are three obvious explanations.<\/p>\n

Firstly, he is a bully, and this was the very obvious behaviour of a bully.<\/p>\n

Second, he is a misogynist. There is no way on earth that he would have treated a man in the way that he did Liz Saville Roberts. His contempt for women, which is readily apparent in the briefings that Number 10 has dished out against every single woman in the cabinet, except Rachel Reeves, is clear in what he had to say, and no doubt informed Angela Rayner's reaction.<\/p>\n

Third, Starmer is also completely clueless. Left without an idea as to what to say, because he must realise the political catastrophe that he created for himself by reading out a speech written for him by someone within Morgan McSweeney's team, he did not in any way attempt to answer the question that was raised, but did instead play the person asking it, with an unwarranted ad hominem attack that exposed him for what he is, and handed victory to Liz Saville Roberts.<\/p>\n

There is a good reason why Plaid Cymru are riding high in the opinion polls in Wales at present. They are topping them, whilst Labour is in third place, somewhat below Reform. This exchange proves why after a century in power in Wales, Labour now needs to be consigned to its back benches, and those who have the best interests of Wales at heart need to be leading it to the place where it should be, which is a future as an independent country, free from the tyranny of politicians like Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This exchange took place during the course of Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday. For those who are not familiar with her, Liz Saville Roberts is
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