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Families who have children aged nine months to four years old will get free childcare if Plaid Cymru wins the next Welsh Parliament election, its leader has said.

Rhun ap Iorwerth made the pledge as he told conference delegates he was ready to lead the country “right now”, replacing Labour as the party of government.

Labour has led Wales since the start of devolution in 1999, and has dominated Welsh politics for a century. The next Senedd election takes place in May.

He said the “transformative” policy, offering at least 20 hours for 48 weeks a year by 2031, would be a “helping hand with the things that matter the most”.

He told the conference that “Labour’s time is up” and that Reform wanted to treat the Senedd as a “plaything” to gain an “electoral foothold”.

Ap Iorwerth called on voters who wanted to stop Reform to back his party, accusing Nigel Farage of spurring a summer of “simmering hatred”.

Currently help with childcare costs is only available to families whose parents are in work, education or training, or to very young children who live in a Flying Start area.

The party says the policy would be worth £32,500 to families for the first four years of their child’s life.

Families whose parents are in work, training or education would still get 30 hours a week for three to four-year-olds.

Plaid’s plan would allow ineligible families to claim 20 hours a week for three to four-year-olds for 48 weeks of the year, and all families 20 hours for nine-month-olds to two years.

The party say that by the end of the five-year roll out it will spend roughly an extra £500m a year on childcare – bringing the total cost to £800m.

It says it can find the cash from the Welsh government’s budget, with about £400m thought to be available in the next budget if other services increase by inflation.

The Welsh government has been under pressure to match the provision in England, where children between nine months and two years receive free child care.

The Bevan Foundation said earlier this year that high childcare costs were pushing more families into poverty and out of work.

Currently parents in Wales can apply for up to 30 hours of combined government funded nursery education and childcare a week – parents need to be in work, on maternity, paternity or other statutory leave, or in education or training.

That is only available to three and four-year-olds, and only if parents receive less than £100,000 a year combined.

Some eligible two-year-olds qualify for 12.5 hours of care a week under Flying Start, but it is not available nationally.

Plaid’s plan would be in three stages. It is proposing to keep the existing 30 hour offer for three to four-year-olds, while extending the roll out of 12.5 hours a week for two-year-olds.

The next step would be to give 20 hours to parents who are not currently eligible – such as those not in work or training, or those earning more than £100,000 a year.

The party would then seek to increase the number of hours offered to children under the age of two year-on-year.

It would be rolled out over the life of the next Welsh Parliament, with the policy fully implemented in the 2030/31 financial year, under the plans.

Party sources, asked why parents whose incomes are above £100,000 should get free childcare, said services that are delivered universally are better, and that households across demographics are struggling.

Plaid says it would be the most generous childcare care offer in the UK.

Ap Iorwerth told BBC Wales: “This can make a huge difference. It’s a very, very important step in terms of helping families with the cost of living.

“This is universal, which marks it out from the system in England.”

Ap Iorwerth said it was “money that we know we can afford”.

Plaid Cymru has played a key role during the life of devolution, being an occasional supporter of Labour governments since 1999.

It has been unable to beat Labour in an election – but recent opinion polling has suggested Plaid is vying with the party to win, as is Reform.

Ap Iorwerth is now trying to position his party as a government-in-waiting.

Even if Plaid came first it is possible they would have to work with Labour or other parties in some form, with no party having ever won a majority in the Senedd.

Ap Iorwerth said Labour had “forgot where it came from who it was there to serve”.

He called on his party to seize the “historic opportunity ahead of us” and turn it into “reality”.

He said the UK had faced a summer of “simmering hatred”, spurred on, he said, by Nigel Farage.

“Farage and his followers drive the deliberate fragmentation of society, giving life to the bogeyman without whom they are nothing.”

He said Reform UK wanted to treat the Senedd as a “plaything” to gain “an electoral foothold”.

Ap Iorwerth said Plaid was ready to govern “right now”, promising to “usher in an age of new leadership that will set Wales on a different path.”

“We are not here as Labour’s conscious, we are not here to repair Labour, we are here to replace them,” he said.

He promised an “immediate cash injection” into the NHS to prioritise the longest waits.

The party leader, a former BBC Wales journalist and the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ynys Mon, said Reform threatened the health service with “US-style bills”, and vowed to keep the NHS free at point of need.