00:00I've joined Plaid Cymru and this has come after a period of reflection and deliberation.
00:06I feel this is the right political home for me after seeing what's happened over the last few months
00:14and coming on a journey, coming back to Wales after growing up in care
00:19and seeing the fact that Wales needs near devolution, it's shortchanged in so many different ways
00:25and I, Cymru, is the party that best embodies that for me and those are the values that I really
00:31believe in
00:32and this is why I'm here today.
00:34It's a vision of hope, it's a vision of ambition, of ambition for the people of Wales
00:40and that's what I see over the last few months since I've been in the Senate
00:45and there couldn't be a greater contrast between Plaid and reform in terms of their politics.
00:50For me, I got into politics because I wanted to represent care leavers and care experienced people
00:56who are so underrepresented in politics and for me, people like me don't often get into politics.
01:02It's an extremely rare thing to do and so that's why I stood on that platform
01:06and actually it's become increasingly more apparent as the reform group have made more and more statements
01:13and done more and more debates and divisive things such as the Nation of Safety
01:17which I have argued consistently against as being the wrong thing to do.
01:21Regarding your constituents who would have voted for you as a reform candidate on a reform manifesto,
01:28they may feel that they're being let down. What would be your reaction to that?
01:33I would say I understand. I've come on a political journey.
01:37I will continue to represent my voters and the constituents in the best way I can, which is consistent.
01:44I've always held them in the closest of my heart in terms of how I do things and how I
01:50approach my work.
01:51I'm very hard work. I will continue to do that. Nothing for ages.
01:55In terms of why you're leaving reform, you mentioned one policy area there, the Nation of Sanctuary.
02:01Can you point to any other policy area where you really feel like reform are not on the same wavelength
02:08as you?
02:10Yeah, two things. One, the Welsh Development Agency describing it as a quango without anything to back it up.
02:17No assertions. It's completely crazy. It's just ideological.
02:21There's no nuance. There's no understanding of how that can better Wales.
02:25You know, I worked in investment before. I know we're desperate for investment and jobs and that's what we should
02:31all be supporting.
02:32I said that from the very start, that I would never be able to vote down, even when I was
02:37in reform, the Welsh Development Agency,
02:39because it would massively impinge on my conscience and, you know, coming into politics, jobs and investments are of primary
02:47importance.
02:47The second thing is, as I was sitting there with a supplementary budget, I did not want to vote down
02:53the supplementary budget
02:54because it has the best interests of Wales and I firmly believe that.
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