MORNING STAR readers in Wales will know that Rhun ap Iorwerth used to be that tough interviewer on the BBC’s Good Morning Wales radio news before the Senedd member for Anglesey became leader of Plaid Cymru in July.

But how much do we know about ap Iorwerth’s background — what drove him into politics and where does his passionate belief in independence come from?

“I was the son of two teachers born in Tonteg in the south Wales valleys. My dad had come down to the Cynon Valley as part of the wave of young teachers who wanted to expand the teaching of Welsh.”

He explains that both his mother and father had become presidents of the Welsh teaching union UCAC. “I’m not sure there have been many husband and wife teams who have been union presidents,” he said.

Adam Price, as his party’s previous leader, had spoken a lot about socialism; I ask ap Iorwerth how he would describe himself politically.

He again casts the answer in terms of his family upbringing and says: “I wouldn’t describe them necessarily as being left or right. It was about community and how we could build a better, more coherent, more caring, fairer community.”

He describes himself to me as pragmatic but says he is on “the left of politics, and if socialism is a means to describe that, that’s fine by me.

“I’m more driven by what I want to achieve. I know the Wales that we want, and it is a country where we look after each other, where those with the broadest shoulders do carry the responsibility of supporting those who need some more help.”

Ap Iorwerth also speaks about redistribution in a way that is refreshing to hear as a contrast to Sir Keir Starmer’s British Labour Party.

“It’s about pooling our resources. It is about distributing wealth in a way that is a million miles from the unfair, top-heavy, all the wealth in the hands of 10 per cent of the population that we have now.”

We speak about the summer of solidarity and the wave of strikes that his predecessor as party leader was happy to support and ensure Plaid politicians supported on the picket lines.

I want to know whether that policy of getting closer to the trade unions would continue under his leadership and ap Iorwerth is emphatic that it would, saying he was at a meeting recently with RMT leader Mick Lynch.

“When I started a career of my own, it was a natural thing to become a member of the National Union of Journalists, and I’m still a member of the NUJ today.

“I believe in unions and I abhor the way that the UK government is trying to undermine what to me is a fundamental right for workers to come together to seek fairness in the workplace.”

I ask if Plaid won the next Senedd election whether they would continue and build on the social partnership legislation in Wales.

The answer was an unequivocal yes. “When we look at what’s happened at Tata Steel, one of the things that strikes me is that the workers and the unions were not involved in a decision that they should have been central to.

“Plaid is very clear in its belief that unions are an integral part of a good workplace and should be part of economic planning. I believe that a workforce that is treated well, that is happy, is more productive, is good for the economy, is good for us as a society.”

We talk about the looming £900 million spending cuts in Wales and how the Wales TUC general council had told the Welsh government that one way of saving money was to bring all services back in-house to stop profits leaving the public sector.

“I believe very much in bringing in-house everything that we can. It makes no sense to me that hundreds of millions of pounds are being allowed to leave the NHS as part of the agency bill.

“We’re allowing agencies to make profit out of spending within the NHS. We need to take whatever action it takes to make sure that that agency bill comes down.

“That’s why I believe that railways shouldn’t be making profits for companies when that money should surely be reinvested in the railways.

“This is a principle, and I realise that on some things it may be difficult, but at every opportunity, the government should be looking to run services themselves.”

Of course, we speak about independence and again the pragmatic ap Iorwerth said Gareth Lewis at the BBC put it quite well after their interview which was that he was “completely committed, but not at 100mph.”

“We have an absolute determination that Wales should be an independent country and we believe that that is how the country can start building its structures, using its powers in a way that creates the fairer nation that I want Wales to be.”

I say the Brexit negotiations showed how difficult it is to renegotiate relationships and trade deals after a political break-up and independence would require intense discussion to divide and share Britain’s assets.

The Plaid leader is adamant that the way Brexit was handled was not how independence would be dealt with.

“The UK Establishment most certainly isn’t friendly towards Wales and isn’t treating us fairly.

“That is why we are driven to want independence so that we can build upon our own relations. At the end of the day, I believe that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should have the right of self-determination.”