Plaid Cymru has pulled out of its co-operation agreement with the Welsh Labour government.
The two parties signed up to the three-year deal in 2021, agreeing to work together in a raft of policy areas in the Senedd.
However, the smaller partner has now withdrawn with immediate effect, seven months before the agreement was due to officially end.
Politics live: Co-operation agreement in Wales comes to abrupt end
Plaid's leader Rhun ap Iorwerth told Sky News he met with Welsh Labour First Minister Vaughan Gething earlier today to reveal the decision, blaming a "change in attitude" from the government that meant "a number of things had been brought into focus".
He said he questioned the "judgement" of Mr Gething over his decision not to pay back a controversial £200,000 donation, which has dogged the early days of his premiership, and he was "worried by the circumstances" around the sacking of Welsh minister Hannah Blythyn this week after a row over a leaked text message.
"[All] in all, it led us to believe that the right thing and the natural time now was for us to leave the agreement," he told Sky News' political correspondent Tamara Cohen.
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Tap hereMr ap Iorwerth denied the move was aimed at gathering support for a no-confidence motion in the first minister, saying: "That's not what this is about. In fact, under the co-operation agreement, such was our freedom to be a firm opposition party that we could still have voted for no confidence even with the cooperation agreement.
"This is about saying, listen, the time has come. The government has changed its attitudes. We have a first minister mired in controversy."
He added: "We need to be making it very, very clear that we have an alternative vision for the future Wales. And we're going to be talking about that boldly and confidently and showing a level of fairness and ambition for Wales that we're not getting from the Labour government."
Mr Gething released a statement, saying: "While it was always a time-limited agreement, we are disappointed Plaid Cymru has decided to walk away from their opportunity to deliver for the people of Wales."
After thanking the Plaid members of the Senedd he had worked with, the first minister said Welsh Labour would now "look closely at how we can progress the outstanding co-operation agreement commitments" around language education and housing.
There may be difficult days ahead for Wales' first minister
It has been quite a tumultuous time for Vaughan Gething since he became first minister of Wales less than two months ago, already mired in a row over a £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign from a convicted environmental criminal.
And Plaid Cymru have made clear that this is one of the factors behind their decision to end the cooperation agreement early.
Welsh Labour needed the votes of Plaid's 13 members. Now without them they could be in a difficult position in terms of passing legislation - although some Welsh Labour sources tell me they don't see any immediate problems on the horizon.
They also say it makes sense for both parties as they look towards the general election at the end of this year in order to go their separate ways and campaign in some places against each other over the next few months.
But it does present problems for Vaughan Gething, not least because the leader of the Conservatives in Wales has said that it is odds on there will be a no confidence vote in his leadership as a result of this.
When I spoke to the leader of Plaid, Rhun ap Iorwerth, he denied it was the reason for the decision, but said that it was an option as Mr Gething's leadership was, in his view, in crisis.
So there may perhaps be a few difficult days ahead for Welsh Labour.
The two parties agreed to work on almost 50 policy areas when the deal was first signed in 2021, after Welsh Labour won 30 of the 60 seats at the last Senedd elections - failing to get an outright majority.
It fell short of a formal coalition agreement, like that signed between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Westminster in 2010, or the power-sharing deal made between the SNP and Green Party that recently collapsed, with none of the 13 Plaid members serving as ministers.
The agreement bore fruit, however, with policies around free school meals and energy passing through the parliament - which both leaders praised in separate statements.
But there had been some reports in recent months that Plaid was looking to pull out of the deal, with Mr ap Iorwerth telling the BBC his party had "every right to discuss the length of the deal" ahead of its official end in December.
Sources suggested Labour would see it as an opportune moment to end the agreement ahead of the general election, due before the end of the year.
The leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies said the end of cooperation between two of his rival parties was "simply an attempt to save face".
He added: "Labour and Plaid have worked together to divert resources away from the people's priorities and towards vanity projects like putting more Senedd members in Cardiff Bay, and have been hand in glove on policies like the destructive sustainable farming scheme and 20mph.
"This move from Plaid means nothing and the Welsh public won't be fooled."
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2024-05-17 14:51:30Z
CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L3BsYWlkLWN5bXJ1LXB1bGxzLW91dC1vZi1jby1vcGVyYXRpb24tYWdyZWVtZW50LXdpdGgtd2Vsc2gtbGFib3VyLTEzMTM3ODI50gFpaHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL3BsYWlkLWN5bXJ1LXB1bGxzLW91dC1vZi1jby1vcGVyYXRpb24tYWdyZWVtZW50LXdpdGgtd2Vsc2gtbGFib3VyLTEzMTM3ODI5
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