WE are where we are because of the cumulative effect of 36 years of Conservative and New Labour government, as successive Labour and Tory governments looked the other way, when it came to tax evasion, allowing the UK’s tax gap to grow to an eye-watering £34 billion each year.

Beyond the tax evasion, the real problem is that the Westminster based political parties have been fundamentally compromised by an unhealthily close relationship with the City. Relying on ‘business as usual’ to fix this problem and to expect the usual suspects to fix the problem is simply naive.

Plaid Cymru won’t compromise on its commitment to tackling tax evasion. Vast sums of money that should have been collected and invested in vital public services have been lost. Plaid Cymru, while the Westminster parties fall over themselves to appease the City bankers and their wealthy backers, puts Welsh communities first.

Jonathan T Clark Plaid Cymru Parliamentary Candidate for Monmouth Constituency