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
83 Responses to “The alarm bells should be ringing for Welsh Labour”
Ben Skipp
Labour failed on Economy and Leadership, the pools for these reflected the final share of the votes. Labour needs to appeal to London and middle England or they’ll never be in power again. Forget about the ‘working man’ stereotype, 71% of adults are homeowners in the UK, Labour had a great manifesto but all they talked about was cost of living crisis, average wage is £27,000 now, people don’t feel rich but they don’t feel in crisis either.
CGR
UKIP quadrupled their vote over 2010 !!!!
The major part of that increase was in Labour areas not Tory.
UKIP are well on their way to becoming the political party of choice for British workers
Keith M
Wait until you see what the tory vermin do – I feel ashamed of some of my fellow Brits.
Mattwales
Coming from Newport I can tell you there bloody well are people in crisis. My problem with the ‘working man’ (or not working in many cases) stereotype is that instead of being grounded in reality too many on the left see them as a modern day wolfie smiths who spend their days watching Russell Brand and reading the guardian.
Ben Skipp
I’m not saying there aren’t people and areas in real crisis and pain. There are plenty where I am on the south coast, which is seen as an affluent area, but in terms of achieving electoral victory you can’t just appeal to those people suffering.