Politics News

Plaid Cymru wins most Senedd seats as Reform surges and Welsh Labour falls to nine

Plaid Cymru became the largest party in the Welsh Senedd after the May 7 election, ending Labour's 27-year grip on the Welsh government. The Caerphilly Observer reported the final totals in the expanded 96-seat chamber: Plaid 43, Reform UK 34, Welsh Labour 9, Conservatives 7, Greens 2 and the Liberal Democrats 1. Plaid is “six short of a majority.”

Nation.Cymru gave the vote shares: Plaid 35.41%, Reform 29.30%, Labour 11.08% and the Conservatives 10.74%. It was the first vote under a new closed-list proportional system with 16 six-member constituencies, up from 60 seats. Turnout rose to 51.7%, the first time a Senedd election has passed 50%, and 66 of the 96 members are new.

Swansea Bay News reported that First Minister Eluned Morgan lost her Ceredigion Penfro seat and resigned as Welsh Labour leader, becoming the first serving Welsh First Minister to lose her seat.

“The age of two-party dominance is dead.” — Eluned Morgan, via Swansea Bay News

How each outlet framed it

• Caerphilly Observer — who is in and who is out locally, including Labour's failure to win a single seat in Casnewydd Islwyn.
• Nation.Cymru — the numbers: vote shares, turnout, lost deposits and how proportional the new system proved.
• Swansea Bay News — the end of a Labour run “dating back to 1922” and Reform's historic breakthrough.

Where the numbers differ: Swansea Bay News' summary table gave Plaid 41 seats, while its own text and the other outlets said 43.

What we don't know yet: None of the reports said who would become First Minister.