By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter
Away from the UK-India trade deal, and there’s some grim new polling for Labour.
A fresh Senedd poll ahead of next year’s election for the Welsh parliament shows the party having slumped to a record low.
Plaid Cymru would have the highest vote share (30%), with Reform UK in second place (25%).
The Labour Party would get a predicted 18% of the vote, according to the YouGov poll carried out for ITV Cymru Wales and Cardiff University.
If replicated at next year’s election, the vote share would be their worst since the first devolved election in 1999.
Meanwhile, the Welsh Conservatives – currently the largest opposition group in the Senedd – are on 13% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats on 7%, while the Greens are on 5%.
The poll comes hours after First Minister Eluned Morgan gave a speech on Tuesday where she called for the winter fuel allowance cuts to be reviewed and urged the UK government to
“respect” Welsh devolution.
While it is only one poll, Dr Jac Larner from Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre said it showed both Labour and the Conservatives would experience a “substantial erosion of support”, creating “a newly fragmented four-party political landscape in Wales”.
‘Wales ready for real change’
A Welsh Labour spokesperson said the poll showed there was “more work to do” and the choice for voters was to continue with Labour’s “ambitious plans” or “risk instability” under Plaid and Reform.
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said it was the “only party standing up for Wales’s interests” and would work hard to bring about a “fairer, more ambitious Wales”.
A Reform UK spokesperson said people in Wales were “ready for real change” and it was “firmly established as a major political force in Wales”.
A Welsh Conservative spokesperson said the party offered “the only credible alternative to a clapped out Labour government” that had been “routinely propped up” by Plaid Cymru.