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An entire Welsh Labour leaflet has been devoted to a message from former Plaid Cymru leader Dafydd Elis-Thomas urging voters to back Cardiff West Labour candidate Kevin Brennan in the general election.

In a wholly unprecedented move Lord Elis-Thomas, who resigned from Plaid last year and now sits as an Independent AM, warned that the seat could be won by the Conservatives if “progressive” voters who normally vote Plaid, Liberal Democrat or Green don’t swing behind Mr Brennan, who has represented the seat since 2001 and had a majority of 6,789 in 2015.

Two all-Wales opinion polls by YouGov for Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre and ITV Cymru Wales in the early part of the election campaign suggested that the Conservatives were on course to win Cardiff West, although a more recent one released last week indicated that Labour was likely to retain the seat.

However, Mr Brennan told us: “The electorate is very volatile and I am nervous about the result.”

In his message, which has been published by Welsh Labour, Lord Elis-Thomas said: “As you will know, a general election is being held on June 8. As a Cardiff West resident, I encourage you to seriously consider voting tactically for the Welsh Labour candidate Kevin Brennan to avoid waking up on June 9 to a Tory MP for Cardiff West.

“It has happened in Cardiff West once before during my time as an MP, and it could happen again this time.”

At the 1983 general election, Conservative Stefan Terlezki unexpectedly won the seat, losing it back to Labour’s Rhodri Morgan for years later.

Lord Elis-Thomas states: “Most voters in Cardiff West oppose Tory values but there is a genuine possibility they could win the seat this time on a minority of the vote.

“You can be confident if you choose to vote for Kevin that you will have an MP with a strong record. He was a key campaigner for Welsh devolution. He led the Yes for Wales campaign in Cardiff and then went on to work in the newly-established Welsh Assembly with the late Rhodri Morgan to help devolution to grow and flourish in those early years.

“I saw in him at that time a genuine commitment to building a stronger devolved Wales, and a preparedness to work across party political lines to ensure that devolution was a success, despite the narrowness of the referendum result.”

Appealing to Plaid Cymru supporters in particular – the seat contains the trendy Pontcanna area, which has many Welsh speakers – Lord Elis-Thomas states: “Kevin has also been a strong supporter of the Welsh language. As a Welsh language learner and a former teacher, he has been a committed and consistent advocate for Welsh medium education in Cardiff.

“In recent months he has been leading the fight in Westminster against the Tory cuts to S4C’s funding and has been pressuring the Government to ensure that our only Welsh language channel has the financial certainty it needs to thrive.

“Of all the written parliamentary questions posed to the Government about S4C in 2017, all but one were asked by Kevin. You can be confident that in Kevin Brennan you will have a progressive MP who is prepared to take a stand. For example, he voted against the Iraq War.”

Lord Elis-Thomas, who as a member of the House of Lords cannot vote in a general election, stated that “the only realistic alternative” is a London-based Tory MP who wants a hard Brexit and a laissez faire future that will see our communities downtrodden and divided.

“At the general election just two years ago, Kevin was elected with 40.7% of the vote. The Conservatives got 25.2%, Plaid 13.9%, Ukip 11%, Lib Dems 4.7% and Greens 3.9%.

“With polling evidence of many former Ukip voters now voting Tory, I urge voters who support progressive policies to seriously consider voting tactically for Kevin.”

Plaid Cymru Cardiff West candidate Michael Deem responded: "Kevin Brennan's voting record is woeful.

"He's missed 6 out of 7 key votes on Brexit. He missed five out of seven votes on preventing violence against women.

"He voted 12 times to try to stop investigations into the Iraq war. He voted to raise university tuition fees, for fracking and for the snoopers charter.

"If Dafydd Elis-Thomas wants to be represented by an absent MP, who votes the wrong way when he does show up, then he's welcome to Kevin Brennan.

"If he wants to join the thousands of people choosing a better future for Cardiff West, where we actually defend Wales, then he needs to vote Plaid Cymru.

"The last two elections in Cardiff West have shown that only Plaid can beat Labour.

"Labour's claims about the Conservatives were bogus last year, and this is a poor attempt to regain the votes they lost through years of neglect.

"If people vote Plaid, they will get Plaid.”