PLAID Cymru's leader has rubbished suggestions that the devolved nations' economies are too weak to leave the Union. 

Adam Price rejected claims the pandemic has proven Wales is better off as part of the UK.

Speaking on BBC Politics Live, he said the Covid crisis has shown in “graphic terms” that Wales will never be a priority for Westminster, adding: “The only solution to our problems lies in our own hands.”

However, presenter Jo Coburn argued that Wales wouldn’t have been able to fund the furlough scheme had it not been for the Union.

Asked to “accept the importance of the UK Government scheme”, Price replied: “Hang on, how did the UK Government fund the furlough scheme? They funded it by borrowing didn’t they? They funded it using the very same method that every country in the world has done.

“In an independent Wales we’ll do the same. Of course when you’re facing a once in a several generation event that’s what governments do. An independent Wales would have done that.”

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The Plaid Cymru leader pointed out that Wales would “have money to spare” because it wouldn’t be “wasting” hundreds of billions of pounds on Trident or the HS2 rail project. Coburn again raised questions, pointing to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which found an independent Scotland’s budget deficit could be almost 28% of GDP, with the equivalent rate in Wales and Northern Ireland even higher.

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Price responded: “Hang on, I’ve given you two example there – Trident and HS2. Between them that’s £300bn, £100bn there or there about for the furlough … we’d have saved money because we wouldn’t have made the kind of spending decisions which actually don’t benefit Wales at all.

“We’re contributing £5-6bn to HS2 and unlike Scotland we don’t even get a Barnett consequential and the Government’s own reporters said that HS2 is going to harm the economy of Wales even though we’re funding it.”

A recent Savanta ComRes poll for ITV recorded record-breaking levels of support for Welsh independence, with 39% of respondents backing a Yes vote.