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Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has announced he is resigning after a damning review said his party had failed to “detoxify” its culture and found evidence of misogyny, harassment and bullying.
Plaid Cymru’s national executive committee has approved a motion to allow the party’s Senedd group to invite nominations for the position of interim leader at its meeting on Thursday morning, subject to ratification by the party’s national council on Saturday.
A new leader is expected to be in place for the summer.
Mr Price, 54, had led the Welsh nationalist party since 2018. In a letter to Marc Jones, the chair of Plaid Cymru, Price said he would be formally tendering his resignation next week “once interim arrangements have been agreed and the employment terms of the Senedd group staff employed in my name have been guaranteed”.
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Mr Jones said: “On behalf of Plaid Cymru I want to thank Adam for his drive and vision over the past four and a half years.
“Adam’s personal commitment to making Wales a fairer nation is a lasting legacy of which he and Plaid Cymru can be proud.”
Jones added: “As we begin the process of electing a new leader our unwavering focus will be on implementing the recommendations of Project Pawb [the report] in order to foster a new culture within the party, making it a safe and inclusive member-led movement for all.”
Nerys Evans, the MS who led the review that was published last week, said Plaid had let women down especially and it had “failed to implement a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment”.
Her report said that inherent power imbalances within the party “coupled with inaction over many years from those with positions of power to challenge bad behaviour, has made a bad situation even worse”.
Evidence from an anonymous staff survey and elected members “highlight cases of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination”, the report said, claiming: “These are not isolated cases.”
Last week, Mr Price said all 82 of the report’s recommendation would be taken onboard but refused to resign. He had apologised in response to the report and said it must do better to foster a culture that was “safe, inclusive and respectful to all”.
Reports earlier on Wednesday from the news website Nation.Cymru claimed Mr Price had already agreed to quit as leader before a crunch meeting of Plaid’s national executive committee later in the day. Nation.Cymru also said Mr Price wanted to step down immediately but that others in the party were seeking an orderly handover.
On Tuesday, Plaid members of the Senedd held talks on the damning report, which criticised the party’s leadership for failing to change its culture. It remained unclear what conclusions, if any, were drawn. -Guardian