“Westminster has no interest at all in mid-Wales. Only in an independent Wales can the interests of Montgomeryshire be properly protected,” GWLAD GWLAD leader Gwyn Evans told farmers at his first hustings at Welshpool.

Gwyn is the first of the candidates the party is fielding for election to Parliament by the new Welsh pro-independence party. It is fighting seats which Plaid Cymru is not contesting – to give voters the opportunity of  registering a vote for a independent Wales.

“We need to jealously guard the branding of authentic Welsh agricultural produce and trade on the confidence that people have in it across the world,” the Montgomeryshire candidate told more than 60 local people at the NFU event on 13 November.

The party – whose name comes from the Welsh national anthem – was launched in 2018 to promote a drive for Welsh independence, with a strong emphasis on putting the economic case and advocating realistic, practical policies.

“We want to see a working countryside with opportunities for young people so they don’t feel they have to leave. We don’t want to see communities cleared off the countryside to make way for trees to provide carbon offsetting for distant cities,” Gwyn told the meeting.

”We want to see more successful local businesses that keep communities alive and schools open and we believe it is important that people who favour Welsh independence have an option on the ballot paper that they can vote for,” he said.

The party is also putting forward candidates in Cardiff Central and the Vale of Glamorgan – other constituencies where Plaid Cymru has decided to stand down, effectively denying people in those constituencies an opportunity to vote for a sovereign state of Wales.

“Independence is normal. When I fly to Macedonia on business, as I frequently do, I fly over 15 independent countries, some of which have populations much smaller than that of Wales. We deserve to control our own destiny,” Gwyn added. “There are 27 independent countries in the EU, including even little Malta, and they all thrive and prosper.”