Welsh first minister tells Aberystwyth independence rally there is "no turning back"

Rhun ap Iorwerth told a pro-independence rally in Aberystwyth on Saturday that Wales is "on a journey" towards statehood from which there is "no turning back", in what campaign organisers billed as the first Yes Cymru march attended by a Welsh first minister. The event, held in the Ceredigion town, drew what organisers estimated were between 8,000 and 9,000 people, making it one of the largest showings by the movement in recent years.

Speaking after a march through the town, the first minister said the "next step" for Wales had to be "equality with Scotland, as a minimum" — a formulation designed to place Wales, a devolved nation with its own government and legislature, on a footing comparable to Scotland's within the United Kingdom. The speech set out an explicit target for the constitutional campaign rather than a fixed timetable, but it made clear that the Welsh Government under Plaid Cymru leadership now regards independence as a settled direction of travel rather than an aspiration for some unspecified future.

The rally itself was staged in Castle Gardens, where campaigners gathered behind barriers facing a stage backed by Yes Cymru's red and yellow branding, with the ruins of the town visible in the distance. The first minister was joined by Yes Cymru's chairman Rob Hughes and by Elwyn Vaughan, the Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd for Gwynedd Maldwyn, among other speakers. Photographs from the march showed a large contingent carrying the green, white and red Welsh flag alongside Yes Cymru banners, one of which referenced a referendum in 2032.

The appearance carried particular weight because of what had changed in Welsh politics since the campaign's previous mobilisations. Independence marches have drawn thousands to Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhyl and Barry since 2019, but this was the first such event staged since Plaid Cymru entered government in Wales following the Senedd elections in May. For the first time, the leader of a governing party in Wales — rather than a Plaid Cymru backbencher or Plaid-aligned peer — was addressing the crowd as first minister.

Ap Iorwerth framed his presence as consistent with the Welsh Government's day-to-day work rather than as a break from it. He said Wales was "standing up for Wales, pursuing the investment and greater powers we need from Westminster now, so we can make a real difference to people's lives as the next step in our constitutional journey". In other words, he tied demands for devolution to a presentational case: that expanded powers and investment should be won in the short term, with independence presented as the logical conclusion of that process rather than a substitute for it.

His remarks also directly answered comments made by the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, a day earlier, when he ruled out handing the Welsh Government the power to hold a referendum on independence. Ap Iorwerth responded that "the right to self-determination is not a right that the UK government is willing to acknowledge" — turning the dispute into one about whether the UK recognises a Welsh claim to determine its own constitutional status at all.

The timing of the speech came days after a closely fought vote in the Senedd. A Reform Cymru motion declaring that Wales should remain part of the United Kingdom was narrowly rejected, with 45 members backing it and 45 opposing. Because the chamber was initially tied, Presiding Officer Huw Irranca-Davies was required to cast a deciding vote, and he voted against the proposal in line with parliamentary convention. The episode underlined how finely balanced the constitutional question has become in the new Senedd.

Reform MS Joe Martin said the first minister's decision to attend the march was "disappointing to see, especially so early in the term, given that Plaid Cymru campaigned on a platform where independence wasn't on the table for the Senedd term". Speaking to BBC Wales's Politics Wales, he said attending was "not where their priorities and their attention should be". Martin went further, arguing that if there were a clear and overwhelming majority of people in Wales who wanted independence, "then obviously that would change things, but there isn't, there's a clear and overwhelming majority of people who don't want independence."

The Welsh Conservatives used the occasion for a broader attack on the government's record. Andrew RT Davies MS said "waiting times have gone up, and we've had the Pisa results that shows we've fallen further behind other parts of the United Kingdom", adding that rather than marching in Aberystwyth, the first minister would be "better off behind his desk in Cathays sorting the problems that he said he would sort out" — a pointed reference to the first minister's own office in Cardiff. Welsh Labour declined to comment.

Responding to criticism from the opposition parties, a Plaid Cymru spokesperson said the party was "getting on with the priorities facing Wales right now — reducing NHS waiting times, improving literacy and numeracy, supporting jobs and businesses, and tackling the cost of living — while also standing up for Wales and being ambitious for our nation's future". The reply sought to pre-empt the charge that constitutional campaigning had displaced the government's substantive agenda, restating the first minister's claim that demands for greater powers and investment are intended to improve services in the here and now.

Taken together, the rally marked a shift from campaign to government for Yes Cymru. The movement now has a first minister speaking from a platform in Aberystwyth, a sitting cabinet, and a party in office with a mandate to seek more powers. What it does not yet have is a route to a referendum: the Prime Minister's refusal to devolve that power, cited by ap Iorwerth himself on Saturday, remains the central obstacle. The absence of any agreed date — the 2032 reference appearing on campaign banners notwithstanding — means the distance between the rally's certainty and the UK's refusal is likely to define Welsh constitutional politics for the length of this Senedd term.