{"id":945893,"date":"2026-05-08T10:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945893\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:48:20","slug":"labour-heading-for-crushing-defeat-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945893\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour heading for crushing defeat in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The party has been the largest at country-wide elections in Wales for more than a century and had won the most seats in the Welsh Parliament since its creation more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>But after Wales went to the polls on Thursday, Labour is bracing itself for a brutal set of results in its former heartlands, with a senior figure admitting the party faced a \u201ctough election campaign\u201d under \u201cdifficult circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Keir Starmer has already said he takes responsibility for a \u201ctough\u201d set of local election results in England, where hundreds of Labour councillors have been voted out.<\/p>\n<p>In Wales, a Labour source indicated the party\u2019s vote had collapsed in Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni and said it would be a \u201cstruggle\u201d to hold on to one seat \u2013 out of a total of six \u2013 in the constituency, which includes some of its South Wales heartlands.<\/p>\n<p>Baroness Eluned Morgan, the First Minister and leader of Welsh Labour, has previously said she is at risk of losing her seat in this election, where she stood in the Ceredigion Penfro constituency.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.84549281.jpg\" alt=\"An observer from Reform UK watches as votes are counted in Newport \" data-title=\"Welsh Parliament elections\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Andrew Matthews\" data-usage-terms=\"\"  \/>An observer from Reform UK watches as votes are counted in Newport (Andrew Matthews\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>At the close of polls on Thursday, Huw Irranca-Davies, Welsh Labour campaign chairman and Lady Morgan\u2019s deputy, said: \u201cAfter many years in government in Wales, and with Labour now governing across the UK, there was always going to be a strong mood for change and frustration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ongoing pressures people face from the cost of living are real and hurt deeply. We take that seriously. There were many tough messages heard on the doorstep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd in the days ahead, we will reflect carefully and listen with humility to what voters are telling us. There will be no dodging. No deflection. Just determination to put things right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.83706084.jpg\" alt=\"Baroness Eluned Morgan \" data-title=\"Senedd elections\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Ben Birchall\" data-usage-terms=\"\"  \/>Baroness Eluned Morgan stood in the Ceredigion Penfro constituency (Ben Birchall\/PA<\/p>\n<p>He added Lady Morgan had shown \u201cdetermined leadership\u201d in \u201cvery difficult times\u201d for the party.<\/p>\n<p>Plaid Cymru and Reform have topped opinion polls throughout this election campaign.<\/p>\n<p>A Plaid Cymru source said: \u201cFrom what we have so far\u2026. It\u2019s looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Labour vote has \u201ccollapsed\u201d, they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The party has been the largest at country-wide elections in Wales for more than a century and had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-945893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116538567898388389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}