First minister rejects Reform-style mega donations to political parties

Wales' First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has said he would not accept huge political donations like the £72m received by Reform UK from two cryptocurrency businessmen.

The Plaid Cymru leader asked the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday: "Have these two individuals altruistically decided that they want for the common man and woman to make life better?

"Or perhaps are they interested in the deregulation of [the] crypto agenda - that I've heard mentioned by Reform in the past."

Speaking on the same programme, Reform economic spokesman Robert Jenrick said the party believed the donations were "entirely in line with the law".

The UK government is seeking to change the law on donations to political parties from British expats, including a £100,000 cap, backdated to 25 March.

Ap Iorwerth said the bulk of Plaid Cymru's money "comes from very, very small donations" such as coffee mornings and people bequeathing money in their will.

Kuenssberg asked if he was saying "some forms of money are OK, and other forms of money are not".

"I'm saying there's an issue with crypto, absolutely," he replied.

"And I think there should be very, very careful international regulation of cryptocurrency because there are real concerns about how it is able to change, negatively, the way movement of money is able to support illicit activities and so on.

"What we have, it seems I fear, is a race to the top - clearly being won by Reform currently on very large donations.

"But I'm quite sure that will be met with a race to the bottom when it comes to trust in democracy and whether somebody, somewhere, with very, very, large sums of money - perhaps not even living in the UK - is trying to buy politics.

"We don't want this in our politics."

Meanwhile, Plaid finance minister Elin Jones said she had been "shocked" by budget pressures since her party took over in Welsh government after winning the election in May.

Plaid must secure an agreement with an opposition party to get its budget passed as it does not have a majority in the Senedd.

Reform is the second biggest party, followed by Labour, which had held power since devolution began in 1999.

"There may well be some cuts in some areas in order to fund both the priorities of Plaid Cymru that we have been elected to do by the Welsh people but also the priorities of one or two other political parties," Jones told BBC Politics Wales.