This post on the Senedd elections will be updated as results come in. We won’t be covering all results, just the main points. Fuller coverage will be posted on Sunday or Monday when we have the final picture.
If you want a result featured because it is a wow, email to [email protected].
Montgomeryshire
Once held by the Lib Dems, the verdant county of Montgomeryshire has yet again returned a Conservative MS with Russell George re-elected with 12,103 votes. Our candidate Alison Alexander was pipped by Plaid Cymru and came third.
Alison Alexander
Clwyd
The Vale of Clwyd has been taken from Labour by the Conservatives. Conservative Gareth Davies won by a majority of 366 over Labour’s Jason McLellan. The Lib Dems took fourth place behind Plaid Cymru.
Brecon and Radnorshire – updated by Caron at 22:30
My heart is absolutely breaking. Since hte Senedd was created in 1999, Brecon and Radnorshire has been held by Kirsty Williams, who played a blinder as Welsh education secretary over the past 5 years.
Kirsty stood down at this election and Bill Powell, former Welsh Party President and Senedd member, took over as canddiate. Unfortunately he lost to the Conservatives.
James Evans – Conservative – 12,741
William Powell – Liberal Democrat – 8,921
Gethin Jones – Labour – 4,980
Grenville Ham – Plaid Cymru – 2,075
Emily Durrant – Green Party – 1,556
Claire Mills – Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party – 1,209
Karen Laurie-Parry – Independent – 345
John Muir – Reform UK – 213
Sam Holwill – Gwlad – 75
It is possible that Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds will get into the Senedd on the Mid and West Wales list.
We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.
However the results in constituencies are not promising.
For example, the brilliant Cadan ab Tomos, who has run such a good campaign, came 4th in Ceredigion, a seat which we have never held at Assembly level, but held at Westminster until 2017.
It would be dreadful if the Welsh party ended up with no representation at Westminster and the Senedd.
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8 Comments
‘Pipped’? Something of a euphemism…
Alexander “Once held by the Lib Dems” is another of those euphemisms to avoid owning up to a catastrophe. We held it for 126 of the 130 years between 1888 and 2010 in Westminster and for the 12 years from 1999 to 2011 in the Welsh Assembly.
If Jane doesn’t get a top up seat for Mid & West Wales (and it is now looking very dicey) the Lib Dems in Wales will finally have disappeared as a parliamentary force. The unwillingness of the so called ‘Great and the Good’ in our party to face up to our problems over any of the last 11 years could well be our epitaph.
Tories didn’t really have any policies until 2 weeks before the Senedd election instead relying on “we should do it as they do it in England” and then in those final 2 weeks promised to spend in a way that would make a Labour government blush.
It’s incredibly disappointing that such a lazy strategy has worked especially when England had the worst response to the pandemic this past winter. I know it’s a massive mistake to blame the voter but, unless 48% of Montgomeryshire voted for local candidate over national party, it’s hard not to be saddened by what they’ve said.
And what was our strategy? Do exactly the same thing as we’ve always done, in spite of ever-worsening results.
Poor leadership, vacuous messaging, a weak manifesto, a much-heralded Education Minister who has gone missing in action during the election campaign (and brought no electoral benefit whilst in office, even if she did so a broadly capable job), no strategy for gaining votes to speak of, not even any Freepost literature in most constituencies.
It’s looking like we’re about to be wiped out. For many of our hardworking candidates and individuals, it’s deeply sad. For the party as a whole though, it’s a result we’ll deserve.
Questions now have to be asked about our leaders.
What Alexander said.
If the next 2 years aren’t spent tearing things up and starting again, we’ll be permanently pointless in Wales.
Who have we tried to appeal to since 2012? Rural voters and university students (being generous there).
No leadership of note, no energy from HQ.
This was beyond embarrassing, and quite frankly deserved.
Jane Dodds has won a list seat. Thank christ for that. Something to build on at least.
The results in ceredigion and Montgomery are truly awful. Surely it is time for an honest appraisal of how on earth could things get this bad.