At the time of writing, we are now only a few days out from a general election that has been a long time coming, writes Cefin Campbell MS.

For the past 14 years, people, families and businesses across Mid and West Wales have borne the brunt of the Conservatives’ programme of austerity.

Indeed, the Bevan Foundation has shown that it is our rural communities in Wales that have suffered most from the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, facing a triple squeeze from poor access to services, low incomes, and higher prices. 

The Tories’ hard Brexit has been a disaster for the region – creating new trade barriers for many of our rural producers and retailers. And post-Brexit trade deals with countries like Australia and New Zealand have, even by Conservative Ministers’ own admission, been very bad for our farmers.

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On top of this has been the sleaze: from the back-room deals with Tory donors on PPE that wasn’t fit for purpose to Tory ex-PMs stuffing a bloated House of Lords with their friends and cronies. 

And now we have ‘Betgate’, with senior Tories – including the candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, Craig Williams – accused of using their insider knowledge to place lucrative bets on the date of the election. 

The whole thing stinks, and I look forward to seeing the Tories washed away and out of government on 4 July. 

But it is clear too that a new UK Labour Government will be no panacea for Wales.

A new report from the Wales Governance Centre shows that under Labour, austerity is here to stay. Labour’s tight spending limits will mean more than £680m being wiped from Wales’ budget by 2028-29.

This on top of the near decade-and-a-half financial squeeze we have seen under the Tories. 

Throughout this election campaign, I have been saddened and angered to see Labour taking the Welsh electorate for granted, and even for fools.

Under 25 years of Labour Government in Wales, much of the ‘change’ Labour is promising to deliver to our health and care system, to education and our other public services should already have been delivered. 

But I have also been energised by the positive reception to Plaid Cymru’s positive message of greater fairness and ambition for Wales, which has resonated on doorsteps across the region.

The need to return as many Plaid Cymru MPs to Westminster in this election could not be clearer – only Plaid Cymru will really fight for the fair funding and the fair deal that the people and communities of Mid and West Wales deserve.