Lib Dems pledge £300m social care boost at Senedd campaign launch

The Welsh Liberal Democrats' leader has launched their Senedd election campaign predicting the party will have a "wedge of MSs" in Cardiff Bay next month to "influence the direction of the next government". Jane Dodds, the only Lib Dem elected five years ago, said no single party will have a majority when votes are counted using a new, more proportional electoral system. At a launch event in Swansea, Dodds promised her party would protect the NHS by investing at least £300m in social care. Voters across Wales go to the polls to elect 96, up from 60, new Senedd members on 7 May. Dodds pledged to ensure that "not a penny" is spent on any moves towards securing Welsh independence, to focus instead on issues she says matter to people's "daily lives". The Welsh Liberal Democrats say they would maintain existing rate reliefs and review changes to the business rates system which have been introduced this month in the next Senedd term, a four year period. Dodds told BBC Wales her party would implement a universal package of 30 hours free childcare, covering 48 weeks of the year, for all children from nine months to four-years-old. Extra funding for the environmental regulator Natural Resou