WELSH First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth stressed support for trade unions and social partnership at the TUC Cymru Congress in Llandudno today, while vowing to expose Reform UK as anti-worker and anti-Wales.

“The trade union movement understands workers better than any policy maker, and industry and public services are your hinterland,” the Plaid Cymru leader said in a speech that switched several times between Welsh and English. “I’ll be inviting you to guide me through it as we foster an even stronger working relationship over the next four years.”

Mr ap Iorwerth said he wanted workers’ voices embedded in policy-making from the outset and empowering unions was the way to do it. Unions will be relieved social partnership legislation agreed with the last Labour government will be maintained. “I’m committed to social partnership,” he emphasised. “It’s through the very principle of social partnership that we can help embed fair work.”

He listed commitments such as expanding free school meals, delivering “the most generous childcare offer anywhere in these islands” and piloting a Welsh child payment to help households in in-work poverty.

But the key was ending “Wales’s dishonourable position as a low-pay hotspot” and Plaid would establish a National Development Agency for Wales to attract good jobs, he said.

It would take a new approach to public procurement, so that public contracts prioritise Wales-based firms — with the aim being that the share of public contracts awarded to these would rise from 55 to 70 per cent. He did not mention TUC Cymru’s demand that these contracts only go to companies willing to recognise trade unions.

But he issued a rallying call for unity against Reform UK, saying “those wishing to tear up workers’ rights are on the march.” Reform’s plan to rip up the Employment Rights Act on day one was typical of “an anti-worker agenda from an anti-worker party.”

Mr ap Iorwerth also spoke of his membership of the National Union of Journalists, the fact that his parents had been active trade unionists and his party’s history of support for workers on picket lines.