Parties in Wales make final bids for voter support

A collection of big black plastic ballot boxes, with one reading ballot box in white writing
Parties make their final pleas for votes with just three days to go until polling day [Getty Images]

The political parties are making their final pitches to Welsh voters before they go to the polls on Thursday.

Plaid Cymru have said Labour will win but Wales will be "voiceless" without Plaid MPs.

Labour's message is simple – vote Labour to avoid five more years of what they call Tory economic chaos.

The Conservatives said they are the only party who will get Wales moving.

With less than three days of campaigning left, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Conservatives are "finished".

He added that while Labour's Sir Keir Starmer expected to enter Downing Street on Friday, there was a "real risk that they will simply take Wales for granted".

But Welsh Labour urged voters not to "wake up to five more years of the Tories, or risk more economic chaos", adding "change can only happen by voting Labour on Thursday".

The Welsh Conservatives say they are the party to get Wales moving, highlighting they will reduce national insurance while Labour will "hike taxes" and block new road building.

On Sunday, the three main parties came head to head on the BBC’s Politics Wales programme.

David TC Davies wearing a black suit, white shirt and tie, with blue Politics Wales background
David TC Davies told Politics Wales it had been a "very challenging" few years for his party [BBC]

David TC Davies, the Welsh Secretary and the most senior Welsh Conservative Westminster politician in Wales, admitted that Rishi Sunak’s government had failed to "reach everyone" affected by the cost of living crisis.

While defending his party's record, Mr Davies said they had to "be honest" because the past five years had been "very challenging" economically.

However, he claimed the UK government had got the economy back on track.

"Following a very difficult situation, we have inflation at 2%, we have unemployment at 3% - which is half the EU average - and we have the joint-fastest growth in the whole of the G7," he said.

Labour's Jo Stevens accused the Conservatives of being responsible for economic "chaos and mismanagement" while in power in Downing Street.

She said whoever wins on Thursday "will inherit the worst economic record since the Second World War".

"If people decide to vote Conservative or if they decide not to vote at all, then nothing will change on Friday and we will continue with the chaos and economic mismanagement that we've seen over the last 14 years," she said.

Liz Saville-Roberts in a polka dot top and pink blazer, and Jo Stevens sat beside her in red leopard print, both behind a desk with a mug each and papers in front of them
Liz Saville-Roberts (L) says Labour's change message doesn't "cut through" in Wales, but Jo Stevens focussed on Tory financial "mismanagement" [BBC]

Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville Roberts said Labour were on course to win on Thursday and criticised their "change" message.

"The old cliche is that it's change or continuity. For us in Wales that message of change just does not cut through."

She said Labour Senedd members were talking about change and further devolution - with more powers coming to Cardiff Bay - but she accused UK Labour of ignoring that.

"What we hear from UK Labour is just to pooh-pooh that, to knock it back, to say you're not going to get that in Wales,” she added.

"For us, here, that message is really ringing through as hollow."

Voters in Wales, and across the UK, go to the polls this Thursday.

Following boundary changes, Wales will elect 32 MPs, down from the previous 40.

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[BBC]

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