Grumblings within Plaid Cymru at party's disappointing 2021 Senedd election campaign

Long before the election results were announced throughout the afternoon and evening of May 7, it had been clear people in Plaid Cymru had questions about the way the election campaign had been run.

The party's plan was to put Adam Price, heading his first election since becoming leader front and centre, selling him as Wales' next First Minister.

The party published a long and biggest manifesto covering vast promises of decarbonisation, enhancing the numbers who can get free school meals, cutting council tax bills, thousands of jobs.

But crucially, this time around it put independence in the fore of their manifesto, promising a referendum on independence by 2026.

We spoke to some number of senior Plaid Cymru figures during after the election to determine whether they thought the strategy was right.

For some, which was right because Plaid had for too much time danced round the edges of independence, and this was time to make its position clear.

But between that, and Mr Price's comments that he wouldn't use more events, senior figures were saying privately the party's strategy was wrong.

A campaign dubbed as “presidential”, Plaid's strategy for this election was to pit Adam Price, together with his polished political persona facing Mark Drakeford, who's rarely referred to as polished.

Both men are academics, with plenty of letters after their names, but the plan ended up being to show Adam Price because the eloquent, polished First Minister in waiting, a more progressive leader, a different voice.

But which was a strategy decided before coronavirus.

Then, for the first time since devolution, people from across Wales desired to understand what was being decided by Welsh Government.

Interest in devolved politics spiked. Mark Drakeford may have been Wales' First Minister before coronavirus, but until the pandemic hit the unassuming academic could go about his daily business fairly invisibly.

Coronavirus put him front and centre, literally, as there were daily press conferences and national TV requests.

Plaid couldn't contend with that. The pandemic also stopped them campaigning, and becoming their volunteers out onto doorsteps, something they are saying is the strength.

But, despite the election only being confirmed on March 9 – almost exactly annually because the pandemic began – the party didn't change its tact.

They continued pitching it as being Adam vs Mark, despite all the noises because the general public appreciated Mark Drakeford and his cautious approach.

One senior source told me they didn't understand why the strategy wasn't changed to feature Plaid's other MSs. People like Delyth Jewell, Sian Gwenllian, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Leanne Wood and Elin Jones who have been all standing for re-electing.

The party published its manifesto on April 7.

That whopping document has 32 pictures inside it, four of those are Adam Price, all full A4, glossy pictures.

When you are looking at candidates or MSs, just they have inside a total of five that are smaller and fewer dominant.

Just four candidates are featured, and Elin Jones, who returned the party's biggest majority, isn't in one picture.

So could Plaid Cymru have done anything apart from build their campaign around Adam Price?

It depends whom you talk to.

One senior figure explained the process must have changed once it had been clear Mark Drakeford's newly discovered profile was reaping rewards for Labour.

“His approach won plaudits and I think with hindsight it would happen to be easier to pursue a strategy of promoting our ministers in waiting,” i was told that.

Another however asserted they didn't think any change might have made a impact on the end result, plus Mr Prices are “an exceptional talent” and it was right he was promoted as the next First Minister because “he is our First Minister in waiting”.

“I am not beating myself up an excessive amount of that Adam Price was front and centre, he's our party leader and that he is our candidate as First Minister and people need to visit that”.

Leanne Wood was one candidate who attempted to result in the narrative her very own, publishing her very own glossy plan called The Rhondda's Next thing.

But she had her own huge profile to fall back on thanks to her term as leader.

The strategists wanted to tell the stories behind the policies they were pledging.

For example, when Adam Price launched their social care policy, a press opportunity was set up to go meet his mother, who's carer for his father.

But the probabilities to do that were few in number because coronavirus was driving this news agenda.

What Plaid Cymru could do was talk about independence frankly.

When interviewed, Adam Price said independence wasn't a distraction from Wales' post covid recovery but a “necessity”.

Independence is a growing topic, but it isn't something that preoccupies every voter's mind.

In Rhondda, where Leanne Wood lost the party's only south Wales constituency seat, Labour's leaflets hammered home that Plaid was pushing for independence.

Their candidate Buffy Williams said people just weren't referring to that. They desired to know when they could hug their relatives again, how they may manage to put food on the table and electricity in their homes.

But, one of the sources spoken to for this piece, said mentioning independence was never going to happen immediately plus they accepted there would be some “collateral damage”.

“It's got to be viewed inside a wider UK context and long-term context. What we should have done is to put that Welsh dimension front and centre plus much more prominent in Welsh discourse than over the last 20 or 30 years and we have pushed Labour further along that line than they have.”

But for others, it was too much at a time when people wanted continuity and safety.

Many questions will be inquired about Rhondda. Labour's campaign there is explained one of the sources as “unprecedented” and “the most aggressive and borderline nasty”.

The same can not be said for each section of Wales. Concerns were raised on paper this piece that the party needs to establish teams and keep them within an position for more than one election and not parachute people from outside a constituency in just to battle an election.

Plaid points to the places their vote held and increased.

Support in their heartlands went up. Places like Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionydd. Elin Jones' majority in Ceredigion sky-rocketed, her vote share going up 14.4%.

Even there, there were concerning comments.

Some of those out in the heartlands said these were told on the doorsteps: “We would vote Plaid but they're just going to help out Labour again.”

From the first days of the campaign – when terrible polling for Labour made coalition talks look likely – Mr Price said he would 't be a junior partner inside a Labour government, and ruled out dealing with the Conservatives (who in turn did the same).

When asked if it not be worth as being a junior partner to get a single Plaid policy in, he said: “The idea that you are able to tinker in the edges or get a bit of a tweak here and there. That's no longer enough whether it ever was and we're not interested in that”.

And this is exactly why among the sources said they had no choice but to be released and say they wouldn't be considered a junior partner.

“We were stung by One Wales,” one source said.

“Look at junior partners around the globe. They traditionally take the blame but not the glory.”

“It's the office of First Minister which holds all of the power, unless you possess a hand with that lever you're always playing second fiddle.

“What else could we are saying? It was an indication to Labour in that respect that we wouldn't come running and don't expect us to come running but it seemed to be being transparent and honest that people wouldn't entertain it.

“That was absolutely right. There was no appetite for it.”

Plaid Cymru will, because it always does, do a overview of the election but there won't be a leadership challenge.

One figure explained: “If in 2021 we came third, I could have seen Leanne Wood being in trouble however i have no idea with Adam. He's got a lot of pulling power within the party. I think the attitude will be 'let him have one more go'.”