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Voters are leaving Labour for UKIP in droves in two seats Plaid Cymru are targeting at the general election, a Plaid politician has claimed.

Jonathan Edwards said the issue was crucial enough for Labour to potentially lose their hold on Ynys Mon and Llanelli.

Labour accused Mr Edwards of talking “utter drivel”.

Mr Edwards is defending the seat of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, a constituency he has represented since 2010 and that Plaid has held since 2001.

The comments suggest that votes for Ukip could help Plaid’s efforts in the seats.

'Ukip factor'

“The big factor in Ynys Mon and Llanelli is the Ukip factor. Labour are losing votes in droves to Ukip,” Mr Edwards said. “Not enough for Ukip to challenge the seat but enough for Labour to lose their hold on these seats.

“I think those two seats are very interesting for that reason, and Ceredigion [another Plaid target] is very interesting because the Lib Dems are imploding.

“Plaid Cymru has historically won five of the Welsh constituencies for Westminster,” he said, listing Ynys Mon, Arfon, Ceredigion, Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. “At the most we’ve had four MPs”.

“I don’t think its beyond the realms of possibility at all for us winning the five seats we’ve held in the past. I think Llanelli has been a very close battle as well.

“I think we’re definitely going to be competing very strongly for five, and even possibly the sixth.”

On his own seat: “We always fight it as a marginal. The response on the doorstep has been overwhelming. I’m very confident. I’m sleeping very well, so that’s always a good sign.”

'Utter drivel'

A Labour spokesman said: “Jonathan Edwards has a track record for talking utter drivel. Whether it’s saying that Sam Warburton isn’t Welsh enough to captain the Welsh rugby team or that people who don’t vote Plaid hate Wales, Jonathan Edwards’ judgement is far from sound.

“By saying that voting for Ukip helps Plaid is a bizarre strategy. So far we’ve seen former Plaid leader Dafydd Wigley say that people should vote Green, Dafydd Elis-Thomas that they should vote Lib Dem, and now Jonathan Edwards saying that voting Ukip is good for Plaid.

“The reality is that this election is a two horse race. There are only two outcomes – a Tory government with their extreme plan for even deeper cuts, or a Labour government that will deliver for Wales. All that voting for Plaid, or whatever other party their politicians decide to back that week, does is make a Tory government more likely.”

At the 2013 Assembly by-election on the island UKIP polled some 3,099 votes. Plaid’s Rhun ap Iorwerth won the seat with 12,601, versus Labour’s 3,435.

At the European elections UKIP came second to Plaid on the island, polling 5,201 to Plaid’s 6,609.

Ynys Mon in Westminster has been held by Labour’s Albert Owen for the last five years. He is defending a majority of 2,461.

Nathan Gill, the Ukip candidate for Ynys Mon and sitting Ukip MEP for Wales, denied that a vote for Ukip in Angelsey would help Plaid Cymru: “No, it will help Ukip.”

“The Conservatives have collapsed completely [in Ynys Mon]. I feel that we have got much of the Conservative vote. The new ground that we are making is in the Holyhead and Amlwch-kind of areas, traditional Labour heartlands.”

He said Ynys Mon wasn’t a target for the party but neither “were the two seats that we did win.”