Labour make big gains in Wales defeating ex-Plaid Cymru leader | Elections 2021

Despite Labour’s woes elsewhere, the party was exceeding even its own expectations in Wales, holding on to key Senedd seats the Tories had targeted and defeating one of the most well known figures in Welsh politics, the former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.

The Tories were delighted to take the seat of Vale of Clwyd in north Wales from Labour – as they did in the 2019 general election.

However, Labour held its ground in the other northern Tory targets of Wrexham, Clwyd South and Delyn.

The party toppled Wood spectacularly in the emblematic seat of Rhondda in the south Wales valleys, where community activist Elizabeth Buffy Williams won with a majority of more than 5,000.

Labour’s Elizabeth Buffy Williams celebrates after she wins the Rhondda seat from from former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.
Labour’s Elizabeth Buffy Williams celebrates after she wins the Rhondda seat from from former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood. Photograph: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans/REX/Shutterstock

Labour ended with 29 of the 60 seats in the Senedd in 2016 and governed with the help of a Liberal Democrat and an independent. As results began to come in on Friday evening, it quickly became clear that it would comfortably be the largest party again.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh Labour leader whose cautious approach as first minister to the Covid crisis is regarded as one of the party’s best assets, said: “I started this campaign answering questions as to why this was going to be Labour’s worst-ever result, a poll prediction of 22 seats. The campaign never felt like that to me.”

The loss of Rhondda was a bitter blow to Plaid, which promised an independence referendum for Wales if it won.

Drakeford said of independence: “I’m sure it’s not over as a debate. But I can tell you absolutely truthfully, in the hundreds of doors that I knocked and conversations that I had, not a single person mentioned the word independence to me.”

Vaughan Gething, whose role has health minister has raised his profile, said Labour had fought hard to win back the trust of voters in north Wales.

Asked if he had a message for Keir Starmer about the direction Labour should go in, Gething said: “The message for all of us is keep on listening to what the public are saying.

“Don’t tell the public they’re wrong when they vote, try to understand why they’ve chosen to vote in a different way. You can’t simply assume that people will continue to vote for you as a result of old tribal loyalty.”

The Conservatives took Brecon and Radnorshire from the Liberal Democrats but the Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, Andrew RT Davies, suggested traditional Labour voters who voted Tory in some parts in the 2019 general election had “come home”.

No party has ever won an outright majority in Wales and whoever ends up with most seats is likely to enter into talks with others or independent members to form the next Welsh government.

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