leanne wood, the leader of plaid cymru, said she would refuse to be part of a formal coalition with a labour party committed to implementing austerity and replacing trident  the leader of the welsh nationalists has vowed never to help prop up the conservatives in the event of a hung parliament   but could work with the snp to drag a labour government to the left leanne wood, the leader of plaid cymru, said she would refuse to be part of a formal coalition with a labour party committed to implementing austerity and replacing trident but she said the election was 'an unprecedented opportunity' to force the next government to give wales  as much public spending per head of population as scotland the intervention echoes demands made by alex salmond’s snp that the scottish nationalists will not support ed miliband as prime minister unless he agrees to ‘end austerity’ although miss wood is largely unknown outside of wales, this is set to change on thursday night when she takes part in an unprecedented seven way leaders debate launching her party’s manifesto in bangor, she said the election offers voters in wales an ‘unprecedented’ opportunity to influence the direction of government policy if plaid cymru holds the balance of power miss wood said plaid was aiming to use any influence it gains to rebalance power and wealth away from the city of london and towards welsh communities ‘this election provides wales with an unprecedented opportunity,’ she told supporters ‘there will in all likelihood be another hung parliament after may and the direction of the next government could come down to how strong a presence of plaid cymru mps there are in parliament ‘if plaid cymru holds the balance of power, we will use that to rebalance power and wealth throughout the uk, away from the financial sector in the city of london and to those communities in wales that need the investment’ asked earlier about her party's positioning in the event of a hung parliament, ms wood told the bbc radio 4 today programme that it would work with the greens and the scottish national party if it was ‘in our interests’ she said: ‘we've said we'll work and co operate with the greens in england and the snp if the numbers – of course we've got to have an election and it's a matter for the people to decide   but depending on the numbers, if it's in our interests to work with those other parties to secure the very best deal for wales, then we will it may be that it's in our interests to work separately’ she added: ‘there's no way that we could support the tories in government, absolutely not wales has never given a mandate for the tories to rule over us and it's highly unlikely that they will next time’ miss wood (left), scottish first minister nicola sturgeon and the green party leader natalie bennett (right) could unite after the election to keep david cameron out of downing street  plaid cymru, she said, had ‘no appetite’ to see tory policies implemented by labour, adding: ‘so while we won't prop up a tory government, we won't back a labour government to implement austerity and trident replacement either ‘we would not be part of a formal coalition with a labour government prepared to renew trident there is no way that plaid cymru mps will ever vote to support the replacement of a system which would cost £100 billion and which no government would ever realistically use’ she said plaid cymru has a ‘very close’ relationship with the snp, is in regular contact and has a lot of common ground she added: ‘it makes sense for both our parties to continue working together’ miss wood added: ‘we want to end austerity, we want to bring an end to this conservative government and we want a better funding deal for wales’ party leaders, she added, ‘see no reason’ why wales should not be treated equally with scotland and plaid is the only party in wales seeking to achieve parity with scotland she said wales ‘risks being overlooked again’ unless there is a strong team of plaid cymru mps whose chief priority would be wales and securing the best deal on powers and resources
leanne wood snp greens labour wood wales
plaid leader leanne wood said she would refuse a formal coalition . but she said plaid could join with snp and greens to pull labour left . miss wood said the election was an 'unprecedented opportunity' for plaid . she will use 'balance of power' to force through more spending for wales 