Welsh Labour proves again it’s a distinctive, winning brand

After the news of a Tory landslide in Hartlepool was announced early Friday morning, senior Welsh Labour figures were worried. The scale of defeat in the North of England was worse than expected, and represented nothing short of a disaster for Keir Starmer’s leadership. Could the same fate be expected for Labour’s Red Wall in North and South Wales, which started to crack in the 2019 general election? The answer, in short, is no.

Welsh Labour stormed to a breathtaking victory in the Senedd election, gaining a seat from its 2016 hall to win thirty of the sixty places in Cardiff Bay. There was a Tory whimper but no bang: the party turned Vale of Clwyd from red to blue but failed to make significant inroads in other Labour heartlands, winning five seats mainly thanks to the much-derided regional member system. Plaid Cymru, outmanoeuvred by Labour’s soft nationalism and tortured by a lulled period of campaigning, had a poor day culminating in former leader Leanne Wood losing the Rhondda.