This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1979 Welsh devolution referendum" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

1979 Welsh devolution referendum

1 March 1979 (1979-03-01) 1997 →
Do you want the Provisions of the Wales Act 1978 to be put into effect?
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 243,048 20.26% No 956,330 79.74% Valid votes 1,199,378 99.72% Invalid or blank votes 3,309 0.28% Total votes 1,202,687 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 2,038,048 59.01%
Show results map 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gwent South Glamorgan Mid Glamorgan West Glamorgan Dyfed Powys Gwynedd Clwyd Show labelled map Results bycounty

National and regional referendums held within theUnited Kingdom and itsconstituent countries
Northern Ireland border poll     1973 EC membership referendum     1975 Scottish devolution referendum     1979 Welsh devolution referendum     1979 Scottish devolution referendum     1997 Welsh devolution referendum     1997 Greater London Authority referendum     1998 NI Good Friday Agreement referendum     1998 NE England devolution referendum     2004 Welsh devolution referendum     2011 Alternative Vote referendum     2011 Scottish independence referendum     2014 EU membership referendum     2016     * UK-wide referendums in bold
v t e

The1979 Welsh devolution referendum was a post-legislativereferendum held on 1 March 1979 (Saint David's Day) to decide whether there was sufficient support for aWelsh Assembly among the Welsh electorate. The referendum was held under the terms of theWales Act 1978 drawn up to implement proposals made by theKilbrandon Report published in 1973.

The plans were defeated by a majority of 4:1 (20.3% for and 79.7% against) with only 12% of the Welsh electorate voting in favour of establishing an assembly. Asecond referendum to create a devolved assembly for Wales was held in 1997, which led to the enactment of theGovernment of Wales Act 1998 and the creation of theNational Assembly for Wales in 1999.

Both theScotland Act and theWales Act contained a requirement that at least 40% of all voters back the plan. It had been passed as an amendment byIslington SouthMPGeorge Cunningham with the backing ofBedwellty MPNeil Kinnock.

Kinnock, the future leader of the Labour Party, called himself a "unionist". His stated view was that "between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century Wales had practically no history at all, and even before that it was the history of rural brigands who have been ennobled by being called princes".^[1][2] He was one of six south Wales Labour MPs who opposed their own Government's plans, along withLeo Abse (Pontypool),Donald Anderson (Swansea East),Ioan Evans (Aberdare),Fred Evans (Caerphilly), andIfor Davies (Gower).

The government ofJames Callaghan did not have an overall majority in theHouse of Commons, and was therefore vulnerable to opposition from within its own ranks. The Labour party was split onhome rule for Wales with a vocal minority opposed. They considered devolution as a danger to the unity of the UK and a concession toWelsh nationalism in the wake ofby-election victories byPlaid Cymru.

The Labour Party committed itself to devolution after coming to power in theFebruary 1974 General Election. It followed the findings of aRoyal Commission on the Constitution underLord Kilbrandon. Set up in 1969 in the wake of pressure to address growing support forindependence inScotland andWales it delivered a split report in 1973. The Royal Commission recommended legislative and executivedevolution to Scotland and Wales, with a minority supporting advisoryRegional Councils forEngland. This plan was rejected as too bureaucratic and ill-advised in economic terms. New plans were brought forward byHarold Wilson's government in 1975 and 1976 which confined devolution to Scotland and Wales.

TheScotland and Wales Bill had a difficult passage throughParliament and the government, lacking a majority to pass the plan, withdrew the legislation and introduced separate Bills forScotland andWales. Hostile Labour MPs from thenorth of England, Wales and Scotland combined to insist that Assemblies could only be passed if directly endorsed by voters in a post-legislative referendum.

In 1978,John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon was under the impression that James Callaghan would call a general election in the autumn, but called it off. On 1 March,Saint David's Day, the devolution referendum was held but came at the end of theWinter of Discontent. Factors such as "tribalism" divisions within Wales and impressions that a Welsh Assembly would be dominated by people of one particular region could have potentially caused the proposal to be rejected.

Choice	Votes	%
No /Nac Ydwyf	956,330	79.74
Yes /Ydwyf	243,048	20.26
Valid votes	1,199,378	99.72
Invalid or blank votes	3,309	0.28
Total votes	1,202,687	100.00
Registered voters/turnout	2,038,048	58.8
Source:BBC

The referendums in Scotland and Wales coincided with a period of unpopularity for the Government during the period known as theWinter of Discontent in addition to "tribalism" divisions within Wales and impressions that the National Assembly for Wales would be dominated by people of one particular region. According to John Morris, people in southern Wales were persuaded by the No campaign that the Assembly would be dominated by "bigoted Welsh-speakers from the north and the west" whilst in northern Wales, people had been convinced the Assembly would be a dominated Glamorgan County Council "Taffia". These factors led to a failed devolution referendum.^[3]

Proposals for a more powerfulAssembly inScotland attracted the support of a majority of those who voted (1,230,937 for, 1,153,502 against) (see1979 Scottish devolution referendum), but it amounted to just 32.5% of the total electorate, lower than the 40% threshold required.

The results sealed the fate of theminority Labour government, and as a direct result of the defeat of the referendums in Wales and Scotland theScottish National Party (SNP) withdrew its support for the government, though Plaid Cymru supported the government in exchange for political concessions.

In the House of Commons on 28 March 1979, the Labour government was defeated on amotion of no confidence by one vote, only the second time in the 20th century that a government was brought down in this way. Labour's defeat in the1979 General Election toMargaret Thatcher'sConservative Party precipitated a civil war within its own ranks, and the party was to be out of office for eighteen years.

• Welsh Assembly (Wales Act 1978)
• Welsh devolution

• Wales for the Assembly Campaign (1979) Papers at the National Library of Wales
• "No Assembly" Campaign Papers at the National Library of Wales
• Aberystwyth 'No Assembly' Campaign (1979) Archive at the National Library of Wales

• Referendums in Wales
• 1979 referendums
• 1979 in Wales
• Welsh devolution
• Welsh nationalism
• Autonomy referendums
• March 1979 in the United Kingdom

• Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from December 2022
• All articles needing additional references
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Articles containing Welsh-language text