Kennedy aiming to add to Welsh seats
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy today said his party was expecting to add to its contingent of Wales based MPs at the next general election.
The party currently holds two of the 40 Welsh seats through Lembit Opik, MP for Montgomeryshire, and Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire.
But launching the party’s Welsh campaign in Cardiff, Mr Kennedy pledged to campaign hard and said he believed the people of Wales would return more Liberal Democrat MPs.
Meanwhile, Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney, also in Cardiff, today told Labour activists that voting for the Liberals would be “dangerous” on two counts.
He warned that it risked creating a Tory government, and was “an endorsement of extreme policies”.
Attacking the Lib Dems he said: “It is a vote for a party which thinks that prison is a ‘waste of time’ and a party that wants murderers and rapists to have the right to vote.”
Mr McCartney also warned that a vote for the Conservatives “would return Wales to a past when day after day we saw jobs lost, homes repossessed and cuts to frontline services.”
Plaid Cymru is launching its general election campaign next week. But today, a group of young Plaid Cymru candidates and members joined Plaid MP Adam Price to urge young voters in Wales to use their vote to hold Tony Blair to account.
He said: “It is important that young people come out to vote on 5 May; it is one of the only ways we have to hold our elected members to account. A strong vote for Plaid Cymru on 5 May will send a signal to Tony Blair that those who lead us cannot mislead us and get away with it.”
