After polls that suggested a radical shake-up at Cardiff Bay, in the end it turned out to be a strong result for the status quo in Wales. The Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford enjoyed a vaccine bounce — thanks to procurement decisions in Whitehall — and can now govern on his own should he wish to.
But the fact that Labour won’t need a formal arrangement with Plaid Cymru to govern (as it did between 2007 and 2011) should not blind people to the fact that the Welsh leader already leads an increasingly nationalist party.
Welsh Labour actually ran pro-independence candidates in these elections
Drakeford himself has said that the UK ‘is over’. Meanwhile, nobody has repudiated the Welsh minister who accused Michael Gove of harbouring ‘colonial attitudes’ towards Wales for daring to contrast educational outcomes on either side of Offa’s Dyke. Most damning of all, Welsh Labour actually ran pro-independence candidates in these elections.
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