by Meic Birtwistle
in Aberystwyth

MARK SERWOTKA called on Plaid Cymru yesterday to forge “progressive alliances on an anti-austerity platform.”

The general secretary of public-sector union PCS, which is not affiliated to Labour or any other party, was addressing Plaid’s conference, where he is popular with the party’s left-wing.

“It is in my members’ interest to forge progressive alliances on an anti-austerity platform … to include politicians from across the political range,” he said.

“If a party has an anti-austerity position and wants to work together with others for a more equitable society — basically an anti-Tory alliance — that is the basic test.”

He said that his dream was one of red-green co-operation — seen more commonly in continental Europe — in Wales and in Britain as a whole.

Key to the creation of such a successful alliance he argued was a change in the voting system.

He stated that the TUC had recently shifted its position and that “it now recognises that first past the post is an antiquated system that does not represent the wishes of the people.”

Speaking of a recent television appearance by the Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Carwyn Jones, Mr Serwotka said: “Welsh Labour has not caught up with the fact that things have changed in the Jeremy Corbyn era.

“Rather than repositioning Welsh Labour in the light of that event it seemed still stuck in the times of Tony Blair.”