Caerphilly By-Election victory for Plaid Cymru

Caerphilly is the talk of politics today in the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd, and the UK Parliament. Keir Starmer at Number 10 was asked by a journalist this morning for his opinion on the Caerphilly By-election results, with a spokesperson instead responding that "(We are) determined to go further and faster, understand people are disappointed with the pace of change, and that is what the government is relentlessly focused on delivering for working people in Wales and across the UK".

Eluned Morgan, the First Minister has also been giving her feedback, stating "I spoke to Keir Starmer today, he recognises this is a really difficult result for Labour, he’s committed to working with us. I made it clear that I expected more to be delivered from the UK Government. I’ll always put my country before the party and we will be leaning into the Red Welsh Way of doing things holding fast to our values of equality, of community and of security. 

"I think we’ve all got to take our share of responsibility, I’ll certainly shoulder my share. But what’s important now is that we look to the future, that we work out how we get out of this situation we’re in."

Certainly Welsh Labour are on the backfoot after a sobering defeat in Caerphilly which has been a Labour fortress for 100 years.

The election was a resounding success for Plaid Cymru, with Lindsay Whittle elected as the Member of the Senedd for the Caerphilly Constituency. In what was considered to be a close election, there was no contest with Lindsay Whittle and Plaid Cymru getting nearly 50% of the vote. In comparison, Welsh Labour and Richard Tunnicliffe had 11%. There was a high turn out of voters with 50.43% voting, the highest turnout in Caerphilly's history.

Lindsay Whittle has already today been sworn into the Welsh Parliament and will have to work quickly to feed back the views of the community of Caerphilly and the improvements they want to see. People are disillusioned with the long NHS waiting lists, the high cost of living, and the lack of action by the current government, after being in power in Wales for over 20 years.