THE founder of a Llyn Welsh language centre has claimed that Plaid Cymru received a donation of £25,000 from former Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi in the 1970s.

Dr Carl Clowes, who founded Nant Gwrtheyrn, has made the explosive allegation in his autobiography, Super Furries, Prins Seeiso, Miss Siberia – a Fi.

The public health consultant who was the founder chair of Antur Aelhaearn, the first community cooperative in Britain in 1974, and who was also a candidate for Plaid Cymru in many elections, said the donation was received during a four-man delegation to the country in 1976.

In his book, Dr Clowes recalls the research trip to Libya with Dr Phil Williams, Brian Morgan Edwards and John Lewis. After watching Gaffafi speak a representative asked how they could contribute towards their cause for independence.

Dr Clowes said he understood through Mr Edwards ‘that £25,000 had come through to Plaid Cymru’.

The Welsh Conservatives have now called for an investigation and urged Plaid Cymru to pay the money back to the people of Libya if true.

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies, said: “These allegations from a senior party activist are by far the most detailed relating to long-suspected links with a Libyan regime who supplied arms to the Irish Republican Army.

“The £25,000 donation that the party allegedly received would now equate to over £160,000 in modern money, and there is no record of such a donation ever being declared properly.

“Former party leader Elfyn Llwyd once called for Tony Blair’s financial dealings with the Gaddafi regime to be subjected to a full inquiry. Will Plaid now commit the same level of transparency to their own financial affairs and hold an independent inquiry? Ultimately, if the rumours are found to be true then I’m sure the party will be keen to return this money to the people of Libya.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “This claim made in this book is entirely unfounded and the author has no evidence to support it. The trip to Libya was well documented at the time and since. There is absolutely no record or knowledge of any such donation being made to Plaid Cymru.”