ELECTION fever continued to rise in Wales as the Tory Party conference began today, where Plaid Cymru were branded an economic threat to the country.

In a speech at the Tory Party conference in Manchester, Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar told delegates that Plaid Cymru was “a clear and present danger to our economic security.”

He also attacked Reform UK as “a clear and present danger to our national security.”

The attack — equating the danger posed by Welsh nationalists with the far-right party headed by Nigel Farage — followed similar claims made at the Labour conference a week ago.

That move prompted a stinging response from Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth to First Minister Eluned Morgan earlier this week.

Mr ap Iorwerth said: “The First Minister used language, quite frankly, unbecoming of her office to describe her political opponents.”

But the political attacks on Plaid have intensified as the latest opinion poll for next year’s Senedd election shows them to be in a consistent lead at 30 per cent, neck-and-neck with Reform at 29 per cent. 

The Tories’ attacks have become increasingly desperate as the party flounders in the polls and faces an electoral wipeout.

According to the Welsh Tory leader, Labour is planning to prop up a Plaid government in the Senedd next year.

“Welsh Labour is hatching yet another stitch-up with Plaid to give us more of the same reheated, failed, nutrition-lacking, socialist fare that Wales is sick of eating,” he said.

On Reform, Mr Millar said that its former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, admitted in court to taking bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament.