Plaid offered Labour to stand aside in Pembrokeshire

The rejected offer was revealed by Preseli Pembrokeshire Plaid candidate Cris Tomos during the debate on Monday, December 2, after Labour’s Philippa Thompson called the election a “two-horse race”.

Talking about ensuring big polluters around the world, like America and Australia, change their ways, Philippa Thompson said the way to ensure that was through a Labour government.

“In my view, that is why we need a Labour government, and certainly not a Conservative government.

“I would point out that in many ways this is possibly, I’m sorry to say, a two-horse race here in Preseli Pembrokeshire. I came within 340 votes of beating Stephen Crabb two years ago.”

Ms Thompson praised the local Green Party for not standing a candidate.

In response, Mr Tomos said: “I hear what Philippa is saying about a two-horse race – there might be a donkey in the race as well.

“To be fair, we did want to collaborate with Labour if they would stand down in Ceredigion and then we would not stand in Pembrokeshire.

“But unfortunately, you [Ms Thompson] weren’t aware of that. But we were trying to discuss that.

“But if you do get in, I hope you can influence that we work together as a nation of all colours to make sure it’s a collaborative nation in Wales.”

A member of the public asked if it might be better for two of the parties to stand aside.

Ms Thompson responded saying that all four candidates were on the ballot now, so it would not be possible for anyone to stand aside.

She added: “I really appreciated what Cris had to say and having known Tom for a while now as well I think we do need to work together more.

“And I hope if I’m lucky enough to get elected that’s something I would like to do.”

The other candidates agreed that it was good to work together, but Tom Hughes from the Liberal Democrats pointed out that the stand-aside idea showed “how archaic our voting system is”.