Leader David Bevan | Ideology Anti-Assembly
Localism | |
The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party (Welsh: Plaid Diddymu Cynulliad Cymru) is a single-issue political party launched in Wales in 2015. It fielded candidates in the National Assembly for Wales election, 2016, winning 4.4% of the vote and not getting any candidates elected.
The party formally registered with the Electoral Commission in July 2015. It was publicly launched in November 2015, with the aim of abolishing the National Assembly for Wales which was established in 1999. The party is led and was co-founded by David Bevan, a former member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). At the time of its launch, Bevan said: "We believe that the Welsh Assembly has failed to deliver for the people of Wales. We are therefore committed to getting rid of the Assembly.... The Assembly is another expensive tier of Government which is totally unnecessary. We in Wales already have councillors, MPs, MEPs. How many tiers of government does Wales need?" The party opposes further devolution of powers to Wales, and opposes any increase in the powers of the Assembly or in the number of Assembly members. It supports devolving more power to local authorities, and no reduction in their number.
The party nominated candidates on each of the regional lists in the May 2016 Assembly elections.