The Welsh Labour leader, Mark Drakeford, has promised to be radical and ambitious in government after his party equalled its best-ever results in the Senedd election.
Labour will remain in power after winning 30 seats – one short of an absolute majority but enough to form a minority government if it chooses not to invite members of other parties into a Labour-led administration.
The Tories finished as the second biggest party with 16 seats, while Plaid Cymru won 13.
Welsh Labour put what it called an “extraordinary set of results” down to Drakeford’s careful leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. Asked if he planned to continue his cautious approach during a new administration, Drakeford said: “Well, absolutely as far as coronavirus is concerned. The pandemic has not gone away.
“A government I lead will continue to follow the science to do what our medical advisers tells us we should do, and that does mean doing things in a way that continues to keep Wales safe.
“But on other matters, our manifesto is a radical manifesto with a host of ideas that are ambitious for Wales. I’ll be very keen to ensure that we give that the most powerful sense of momentum behind it to get those things happening here in Wales.”
The Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, Jane Dodds, who won a regional seat in Mid and West Wales, said she had not been approached by Drakeford to help form the next government. A Lib Dem, Kirsty Williams, served as education minister in the last administration when Labour held 29 seats.
The Welsh Conservatives took Vale of Clwyd in north Wales from Labour but failed to wrest other target seats such as Wrexham and the Vale of Glamorgan from Labour.
Plaid Cymru lost its high-profile former leader Leanne Wood’s Rhondda seat to Labour. The nationalists had hoped to have some sort of role in the next government and press their case for an independence referendum to be held.
Polling at the start of the campaign suggested Labour was facing its worst ever result and was at risk of winning as few as 22 of the Senedd’s 60 seats, a loss of seven from 2016.