Plaid Cymru inches ahead of Conservatives with Leanne Wood claiming a shock victory in Rhondda
While Scottish Labour is in crisis, things haven’t gone too badly in Wales. It remains the largest party by a substantial margin, and Carwyn Jones will be first minister.
Plaid Cymru is the second-largest party, just one seat ahead of the Conservatives. Plaid can claim the most significant victory of the night — leader Leanne Wood snatched the Labour heartland of Rhondda from Labour’s Leighton Andrews.
Graphic via Politico Europe
As mournfully predicted, UKIP have surged into the Senedd with seven new Assembly Members. And the Lib Dems are clinging on by a threat. With just one seat they lose their ‘group’ status in the assembly.
The key question now is what kind of coalition Carwyn Jones will form, and how quickly it can be achieved. He has expressed willingness to work with either Plaid Cymru or the Lib Dems.
‘People will look to us to form a government as by far the largest party,’ Jones commented. ‘We have to do that fairly quickly. We have a steel crisis that has to be dealt with. The last thing people want is uncertainty.’
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