 Glyn Wise, Plaid candidate Bethan Jenkins and president Dafydd Iwan |
He wanted Big Brother viewers to vote for him, and now Glyn Wise has made his new electoral intentions clear. The Channel 4 reality show star aired his ambition to become a Welsh Assembly Member as he staged a high-profile show of support for Plaid Cymru at the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay.
Glyn, of Blaenau Ffestiniog, reached the voting age of 18 this year.
Labour said it did not want to take part in "a debate which sets one part of the country against another".
Glyn, who claimed Plaid would put Wales and the Welsh language first and accused Tony Blair of neglecting the Welsh nation, said he especially wanted to get his message across to under-25s because they were the group who voted least.
He was cheered by pupils from Ysgol y Preseli, Pembrokeshire, who had just been on an educational visit to the assembly building, the Senedd.
Glyn was supported at the assembly building by Plaid's youngest candidates and party president Dafydd Iwan.
He said he still held the ambition he voiced in the Big Brother house - where he was runner-up in this year's series - to become a politician eventually.
 Glyn arriving at the Big Brother house in ebullient mood |
However, when asked if he wanted to become an MP or an AM he asked, "What's the difference?" When he was told that as an AM he would sit in Cardiff Bay he said that option appealed to him most because he wanted to "concentrate on Wales".
He said: "Tony Blair does everything for England with Wales put aside. I think that's wrong".
When he was asked if so much emphasis on the Welsh language might put some people off Plaid, he said the party was also for Welsh learners.
A Welsh Labour spokesman said: "We're used to this kind of divisive talk from Plaid Cymru, but don't want to be drawn into a debate which sets one part of the country against another.
"We believe in Wales as a strong part of the United Kingdom."
Meanwhile, the Big Brother star said he would boycott clothes by the fashion chain Burberry after the company announced plans to axe 300 jobs in Wales. Burberry's factory at Treorchy, Rhondda, which makes polo shirts, is likely to close just after Christmas and its production moved abroad.
Workers at the threatened factory have held a demonstration against its closure at the Welsh assembly in Cardiff Bay and outside its stores in London.
The firm has said the south Wales factory is no longer "commercially viable", but it would not abandon the UK.
Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews said: "Burberry sells itself around the world as a quintessential British brand.
"But if it wants to be seen as a British brand it needs to keep its manufacturing jobs in Britain."
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