Plaid Cymru has now survived 150 days in government. The party of Wales won 43 seats this year in the Welsh parliamentary election, just 6 seats shy of a majority government. This election result saw Plaid Cymru’s Rhun Ap Iorwerth take over from Eluned Morgan, ending over 100 years of Labour dominance in Wales. So what has Plaid done over the last 150 days, and what does it mean for students? According to Rhun ap Iorwerth, “with Plaid Cymru at the helm, the old order is replaced with new leadership, new energy and new ideas”.
The Welsh nationalist party made many promises of improving the country. In the run up to the election, the party pledged that NHS wait lists would be “eliminated”.
Since then, the Welsh government has announced a £145 million boost to the NHS in June 2026, £25 million of which will be invested into new surgical and diagnostic hubs. NHS waiting lists are a massive issue in Wales at the moment, with hospital staff incredibly overworked. Prioritizing this issue is what Wales has desperately needed.
Another issue being prioritised by Plaid Cymru is childcare. In their supplementary budget, Plaid stated that they will be investing a further £55 million into childcare to deliver 12.5 hours per week of funded childcare to all 2 year olds. This funding includes support for Welsh medium childcare, pushing towards the Welsh Government’s goal of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050.
This extra funding is supposed to expand on the 30 hours of free childcare already provided. The focus on Welsh medium education is essential for the language to survive, which is good for the furthering of Welsh culture and Welsh society as a whole.
Gair Rhydd spoke exclusively with Lindsay Whittle, MS for Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent, who won the Caerphilly by-election in 2025 against Senedd colleague Llyr Powell on a message of positivity and change. Whittle stated that “Labour took Wales for granted for far too long… Plaid Cymru has started to make changes aimed at improving people’s lives”.
In late September, the BBC reported that the Welsh secretary Stephen Kinnock accused Plaid Cymru of stalling on investments into Wales.
Helen Jenner, head of the Reform party in Wales, questioned the spending of the “so-called party of Wales” in a Senedd meeting late last month; “the so-called party of Wales would rather spend the people of Wales’s taxes in Uganda than here at home on our nursing graduates who have been left without jobs and on Welsh pupils with additional learning needs. When will you put aside your personal pet projects and put the people of Wales first?”
Despite the dismissive comments of reform about Plaid’s commitment to the Welsh people, the First Minister of Wales demanded a new deal for Wales before he was elected to the top job. But, he now has the power to address the Prime Minister directly. Rhun Ap Iorwerth has called upon Andy Burnham to offer a new deal for what he believes to be a more fair treatment of Wales. He pleads that Wales needs to be regarded as a nation of its own, not just a constituency of England.
With Plaid Cymru being a pro-independence party, some believe that this is the first step towards an independent Wales: for better or for worse. Others believe that this is a necessary step in improving quality of life for Welsh society as a whole.
It has been an eventful first 150 days, but this Plaid government is still in its infancy. The party has had its fair share of criticism, but overall it has been a positive change from the previous government. Will Plaid continue on this path of improvement or fall into complacency like the labor government before? Only time will tell.