Despite the general election being just six months away, you would be forgiven for feeling that we are living in an age of permanent austerity and political apathy.

Engagement with the electorate is arguably at an all-time low and this comes as little surprise given that the three main parties are all signed up to more cuts and more pain for ordinary people.

The lack of plurality among these three parties is one of the main reasons I entered politics and why, this weekend, I will be delivering my first conference speech as a Plaid Cymru Westminster candidate as the party gathers in Llangollen.

I never thought that I would stand as a candidate. I couldn’t be more different from the career politicians — the political elite — who currently run our politics in Westminster. But one public meeting with then newly elected Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood changed my life.

When sitting in my local rugby club hearing Leanne speak, I knew right away that I had found a political home. I sat there and listened to a leader who spoke my languages, whose values represent my values, who articulated the same ambition that I have for the future of Wales.

Just like me she was a public-sector worker, a mother and a Valleys girl. I was utterly inspired and decided that it was time to stop standing on the sidelines and go out there to make a difference for my community.

Because why should politics be the preserve of the few? One man, one vote. One man, one voice. The Westminster elite won’t speak for us so we must stand up and speak for ourselves.

That is what I want to secure not only for my constituency of Caerphilly but for the whole of Wales. One voice, united – whether urban or rural, migrant or local, Welsh speaker or non-Welsh speaker.

The Labour Welsh government claims to speak for Wales but the reality is that it takes its lines from London. Waking up to this reality has been a defining step on my political journey.

There is a strong Labour tradition in my family — one grandfather a local Labour councillor, the other the area’s union rep. Both grandmothers their greatest supporters. Politics was always at the centre of our family and under constant discussion.

I was always encouraged to engage, to protest and to stand up for the rights of others.

I became a firefighter at 18, and a very proud one at that — and in doing so I then of course became a member of the FBU (Fire Brigades Union).

I have become an active member in my station and my brigade, and through that I have gained valuable experience, skills and friends. The comradery among firefighters is second to none.

As I became more active in the union, I wanted to become more active in politics. I had always been a Labour supporter so naturally that’s where I looked first when choosing how to become more involved.

Suffice to say I didn’t like what I saw. This was not the Labour of my grandparents and certainly not the movement that I always thought would be my home.

Labour has become the party of sound-bites not substance, the party of the political class not the working class. It values have become diluted, its aims obscured, its activists disorientated.

That is why I and several of my friends sought leadership in Leanne and joined Plaid Cymru.

When Labour talks, Plaid Cymru acts. When Plaid Cymru forced a vote in the Welsh Assembly to scrap zero-hours contracts, Labour AMs abstained.

When Plaid Cymru forced a Commons vote to transfer control over Welsh natural resources to Wales to improve our economy and end the scandal of fuel poverty in an energy-rich nation, Labour MPs abstained.

Labour have allowed our economy to become poorer and refused to fight for extra powers that could have created much-needed jobs for Welsh workers.

Wales could do so much more and deserves so much more.

Plaid Cymru is imagining a better Wales and delivering workable policies on how to realise that vision.

We want a Wales where people are not waiting months for life-saving tests on the NHS because we have enough equipment and doctors to ensure that they are treated on time.

We want a Wales where our local companies are able to bid for contracts in the public sector so we can create more jobs and keep the Welsh pound in our communities.

We want a Wales where all decisions affecting our people — on welfare, policing, the economy and energy — are made in Wales by the people of Wales.

That’s the vision — a Wales based on fairness, based on equality. A Wales that doesn’t leave anyone behind. Westminster isn’t working for Wales. We have a three-party political elite that favours profits over people, corporations over communities.

My party Plaid Cymru is now offering a different future. I would urge all those seeking a progressive alternative to take that same step as I did. We need a Wales that works for the many, not the few.

Plaid Cymru is the only party which can deliver this.

Beci Newton is the Plaid Cymru Westminster candidate for Caerphilly.