More than half the people of Beaumaris are native English speakers

The Plaid Cymru vice-president and candidate for the party's leadership came under fire for comments he made in a speech on Thursday.

In it, he criticised racist attitudes and said that some people were leaving England for Wales to escape Indian and Pakistani immigrants who had settled there.

These comments have invoked strong feelings among some English people living in Gwynedd.

He is being totally racist - he should think before he opens his mouth Resident of Beaumaris

"He is being totally racist," said one English woman living in Beaumaris, who did not want to be named.

She moved to Wales to marry a Welshman in 1971.

"He should think before he opens his mouth," she added.

"We live in a multicultural society here, if they don't want that, then they only have to look at the nurses in Ysbyty Gwynedd, what would they do without them?"

"He is fuelling racism among the young," added her husband who said he felt saddened by the controversy.

"He may have met somebody somewhere who said that, but he's making a huge generalisation and is giving a totally false impression of English people."

Graham Eaves moved to Wales to work

Graham Eaves is originally from near Preston and moved to Wales to work as a house steward at Penrhyn Castle in 1990.

Now living at Tal-y-bont near Bangor, he says he has never heard of anyone running away to Wales to escape from a multicultural society in England.

"I moved here to work, retiring in 1996," he said.

"I know quite a few English people living in the area but I don't know of anyone coming here because they have a problem with the place they're moving from.

"If Dafydd Iwan is saying people have brought this to his attention, then he's entitled to his opinion.

"If there are such people that come here because they can't get on with people in England well there's something wrong with them."

'Partly true'

However, some residents in Menai Bridge believe there is some truth in what Mr Iwan said.

One assistant in an antiques shop in the town, who again did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said she often overhears conversations in the shop.

"I have heard people who have moved here from England say things like that," she said.

"It always surprises me, particularly when I hear young people talk in that way."

And a cafe owner in the town, who is German, agreed it was "partly the truth."

"I hear customers talk like that.

"A lot of people who are incomers here are older, retired English people.

"I don't think it is necessarily a race issue but it's because places like Manchester are becoming more continental, middle-class and attracting younger people.