Ap Gwilym has been a member of
Plaid Cymru since 1963. He is an economics adviser to the party and was one of their first prospective candidates for the House of Lords. He is a trustee of the Welsh think tank, the
Institute of Welsh Affairs, and frequently writes for their
ClickOnWales website. He was formerly the party chairman and serves to cost manifesto proposals each year. He told the BBC in 2017 that the party would not strike a formal deal with the Conservative Party, but controversially has said that the party should consider co-operating with the Tories on particular topics if "we get something in return" Ap Gwilym's public profile rose further after an interview with
Jeremy Paxman on the
BBC current affairs programme,
Newsnight. In the interview ap Gwilym challenged Paxman on a variety of economic figures, telling him to "do your homework" when those figures were not readily available. A recording of the interview received over 90,000 hits on YouTube within the first few days of release. ==References==