Ken Skates: Plaid Cymru wins 43 seats to end Labour rule
ken skates Plaid Cymru won the Welsh Senedd election on Friday, taking 43 seats and ending 100 years of Labour dominance in Wales. The result puts Rhun Iorwerth in position to lead the next push for government after Welsh Labour finished third with nine seats.
Reform UK finished second with 34 seats, while the Conservatives won seven, the Greens two and the Liberal Democrats one. Under Wales’s new electoral system, 49 seats are needed for a majority, so no party was likely to win outright and Plaid Cymru can comfortably form a minority government.
Rhun Iorwerth in Llandudno
Speaking in Llandudno, north Wales, Iorwerth said he was ready to become first minister and form the next Welsh government. “The people of Wales have today decided on the next steps in Wales’s journey. Plaid Cymru now stands ready to take the necessary steps to form the next government.”
He added, “This is a moment 100 years in the making.” The party leader also said, “We have won because we represent hope over division, credibility over chaos, and progress over stagnation.”
Iorwerth said his name would be put forward to be nominated as the next first minister and that Plaid Cymru would continue talks with other parties. “Plaid Cymru will press ahead with those conversations with urgency.”
Labour’s loss in Llandysul
Eluned Morgan said she would resign as Welsh Labour leader after calling the result “catastrophic” in her election concession speech in Llandysul, west Wales. She said she took “full responsibility” and called on the UK Labour government to “change course.”
Her warning was sharper than the numbers alone. “Today we see the end of over a century of Labour winning in Wales. The party will need to take a look at itself, understand the depth of the challenge, and think carefully about what the public has told us … The age of two party dominance is at an end and we will need to adjust to a world where multiple parties contend for power.”
She closed by saying, “We owe it to the people of Wales to listen. To understand. And to rebuild,” a line that matched the scale of the setback more closely than the seat count itself.
Wales’s new numbers
Plaid Cymru was founded in 1925, but the break in Labour’s grip came only after devolution began in 1999, when Welsh Labour started governing Wales. Friday’s result ends that run and gives Plaid a route to lead a minority administration without needing to reach the 49-seat threshold on its own.
The other pressure point is Reform UK. Polls had suggested Plaid and Reform were neck and neck, but the final numbers were not as tight as predicted, and the result blocks momentum for Nigel Farage’s party while leaving Labour far behind in third place. All three of the UK’s Celtic nations are now controlled by separatist parties, and the Welsh result now turns on how quickly Plaid can turn seats into a workable government.
