With elections to the Welsh Assembly due next year, the red lights should be flashing for Labour
With all eyes fixed firmly on Labour’s disastrous performance in Scotland and much of England, last night should set alarm bells ringing for the party in Wales.
In 2010, Welsh Labour suffered what was deemed to be a difficult evening. The results at the time said it all. The loss of four seats saw the party take 26 in Wales whilst the Conservatives picked up an additional five to secure eight Welsh seats in the House of Commons.
Labour’s proportion of the vote fell by 6.5 per cent whilst the swing from Labour to Conservatives was 5.6 per cent.
Going into this year’s election, all the talk had been of Labour making albeit modest gains in Wales. As the final Welsh Political Barometer prior to the polls opening indicated, Labour were supposed to be on course to bag an additional two seats in Cardiff Central and Cardiff North.
With all 40 seats declared in Wales however, the results make for sobering reading. In the only bit of the UK that has a Labour Government, led by Carwyn Jones, the party saw itself make a net loss of one seat in Wales, whilst the Conservatives picked up an additional three to return 11 Welsh MPs.
This all comes on the back of results in last May’s European Elections which put UKIP in second place in Wales, less than 1 per cent behind Labour in the popular vote.
With elections to the Welsh Assembly due next year, the red lights should be flashing for Labour in Wales with election results going in the wrong direction.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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83 Responses to “The alarm bells should be ringing for Welsh Labour”
Mattwales
The SNP won by portraying themselves as home grown hero’s as opposed to Westminster outsiders. I think it was nationalism that won it for the nationalists.
Robert
labour is the party of working people not welfare or benefits, but sadly so many who work do not earn enough so need welfare and benefits and that is after 13 years of labour governments.
Talk about Reeves shooting the party in the foot, it was error after error with labour, the Tories must have had a meeting once a week to drink coffee and P*ss themselves laughing.
Robert
I doubt it or are you saying now Scotland would vote yes, I think what went wrong was Murphy tried to go to the right the SNP countered by going to the left, Murphy saw his error and went to the left and Scotland laughed.
Seeing a right winger like Murphy talking like a left winger was hilarious.
GTE
Perhaps when Labour was in power they shouldn’t have spent 100% of people’s state and civil service pension contributions.
DRbilderburg
The Welsh are better served by Plaid than Labour. Any Welsh voters who vote Labour are simply going to get a Tory Government ruling them. Labour are the guarantee of a Tory Government forever The next leader will be the next looser. Cooper the wife of Balls and flipper. Burnham Stafford The upper echelons of the Labour party are a joke, in any other profession they’d be sacked Perrenial 3rd rate losers