Why Welsh voters turned their backs on the Labour party

"For more than 100 years, Welsh Labour was the democratic world's most successful election-winning machine, but the political behemoth limped into third place this week with just nine seats in a 96-seat parliament. A new chapter in Wales's political and cultural history has opened: pro-independence Plaid Cymru is set to form a minority government. For those of us who've only known Labour domination the fact that it could collapse with such dramatic completeness it's quite hard to convey the shock. It was just astonishing."

"Labour was absolutely mullered, said Richard Wyn Jones, the director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. We've known Labour was in deep trouble in the post-industrial valleys but the fact that Plaid could win half of the 12 seats in Cardiff? Genuinely everywhere you look, it's hard to identify any solid territory they can actually rebuild on. In an extraordinary admission of defeat before a single constituency result was declared, Labour released a statement saying it expected to return just 10 MSs out of 96 available seats in the newly expanded Senedd chamber."

"The first minister, Labour's Eluned Morgan, cut a tragic figure as the results were announced at the count in her west Wales constituency of Ceredigion Penfro. Three of the six seats available went to Plaid Cymru, two to Reform and one to the Conservatives, making Morgan the first ever leader of a government in the UK to lose their seat while in office. She immediately resigned in a concession speech. The party announced on Saturday that Ken Skates, MS for Fflint Wrecsam and former cabinet secretary for transport, would se"

Labour’s dominance in Wales ended with a major collapse in the Senedd election. The party fell to third place with nine seats out of 96, while pro-independence Plaid Cymru became the largest party and is set to form a minority government. Labour had previously never held fewer than 26 seats in a 60-seat chamber. Eluned Morgan, the first minister, lost her own seat in Ceredigion Penfro and resigned immediately after results were announced. Labour had expected to return only about 10 MSs before constituency results were declared. Ken Skates was announced as the next leader candidate, following Morgan’s resignation.

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