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Do you agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly as proposed by the Government? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outcome | The Government of Wales Act 1998 passes and the National Assembly for Wales is formed. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The1997 Welsh devolution referendum was a pre-legislativereferendum held inWales on 18 September 1997 over whether there was support for the creation of aNational Assembly for Wales, and therefore a degree ofself-government. The referendum was a Labour manifesto commitment and was held in their first term after the1997 election under the provisions of theReferendums (Scotland and Wales) Act 1997. This was the second referendum held in Wales over the question of devolution: thefirst referendum was held in 1979 and was defeated by a large majority.
The referendum resulted in a narrow majority in favour, which led to the passing of theGovernment of Wales Act 1998 and the formation of theNational Assembly for Wales in 1999.
Areferendum was held in 1979 (with aparallel referendum in Scotland) proposing the creation of aWelsh Assembly, underJames Callaghan's Labour government. The referendum stipulated that a Welsh Assembly would be created if supported by 50% of votes cast and 40% of the total electorate. The Scottish referendum achieved the first condition but not the second, while the Welsh referendum was defeated by almost a 4:1 majority. Indeed, although theLabour Party had committed itself to devolution in 1974 (following the advice of theRoyal Commission on the Constitution) several Welsh LabourMPs (includingNeil Kinnock) were very much opposed.
The 1979 referendum had been such a resounding defeat that it killed off any prospects of devolution in Wales for a generation. The almost wholly anti-devolution, unionistConservative Party won the1979 general election (thoughWelsh Labour remained the largest party in Wales, theConservatives only won 11 out of 36 seats in Wales)[1] and remained in government until1997. Over this time, the Conservative Party became increasingly unpopular in Wales. The Conservatives mostly appointedEnglishMPs representing English constituencies to the post ofSecretary of State for Wales, includingWilliam Hague andJohn Redwood (who famously attempted to mime the words to theWelsh national anthem at the 1993 Welsh Conservative Party conference.[2])
A commitment to the creation of a Welsh Assembly with executive powers was again put into theLabour Party manifesto for the1992 general election.[3] The Labour Party shaped its policy of a Welsh Assembly under the guidance ofShadow Welsh SecretaryRon Davies andWelsh Office spokesmenWin Griffiths andRhodri Morgan. In March 1996, Ron Davies signed an agreement withAlex Carlile, the Leader of the WelshLiberal Democrats, which committed both parties to support a "Yes" vote in a Welsh devolution referendum in the event of a Labour victory at the1997 general election. The agreement was made in the context of a potential Lib-Lab pact should Labour not win an overall majority.
There was no inter-party Constitutional Convention in Wales to define devolutionas there had been in Scotland. Labour's initial proposal to elect a Welsh Assembly using the traditionalfirst-past-the-post system was reversed in late-1996 in favour of theAdditional-member system. This change was vital in order to gain the support ofPlaid Cymru and theWelsh Liberal Democrats in the event of a referendum.
Unusually for a referendum just as in the1997 Scottish devolution referendum the electorate was asked to vote on two statements rather than a question which corresponded to the following proposal. The statements were issued both inEnglish andWelsh.
Parliament has decided to consult people in Wales on the Government's proposals for a Welsh Assembly:
Mae'r Senedd wedi penderfynu ymgynghori pobl yng Nghymru ar gynigion y Llywodraeth ar gyfer Cynulliad i Gymru:
or
(To be marked by a single (X))
The official Yes campaign,Yes for Wales, was supported by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru, though they also ran their own individual campaigns.[4] Labour anti-devolution MPs (includingLlew Smith, among others[5]) were subject to a tightparliamentary whip to ensure that the Labour Party was seen to be publicly behind the campaign.Yes for Wales placed a large emphasis on grassroots involvement in the campaign, with sectoral groups such as "Pensioners say Yes", and local branches throughout Wales.[6]
Prominent campaigners for a Yes vote includedLabour politiciansLeighton Andrews,Ron Davies,Alun Michael,Rhodri Morgan,Andrew Davies,Peter Hain,Hywel Francis,Edwina Hart andVal Feld;Liberal Democrat politiciansMichael German,Jenny Randerson,Kirsty Williams andPeter Black;Plaid Cymru politiciansDafydd Wigley,Cynog Dafis Ieuan Wyn Jones andLeanne Wood; and academicRussell Deacon.
The official No campaign,Just Say NO, was chaired byNick Bourne, then-Conservative "Chief Spokesman in Wales". The No campaign lacked the structure and finance of the Yes campaign, and suffered from the fact that the Conservatives' landslide defeat at the 1997 general election meant there were no Conservative MPs (and therefore no MPs supporting the No campaign) in Wales. Additionally, the No campaign in 1997 did not have the support oflocal authorities; the fact that the Conservatives hadreduced layers of local government from two to one in 1994 meant that this was not an issue as it had been in 1979.
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| I agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly Yr wyf yn cytuno y dylid cael Cynulliad i Gymru | 559,419 | 50.30 |
| I do not agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly Nid wyf yn cytuno y dylid cael Cynulliad i Gymru | 552,698 | 49.70 |
| Valid votes | 1,112,117 | 99.64 |
| Invalid or blank votes | 3,999 | 0.36 |
| Total votes | 1,116,116 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,222,533 | 50.22 |
Note: In Wales under theWelsh Language Act 1993 the Welsh language has equal status with the English language.
| National referendum results (excluding invalid votes) | |
|---|---|
| Agree/Cytuno 559,419 (50.3%) | Disagree/Anghytuno 552,698 (49.7%) |
| ▲ 50% | |
The overall result was declared in theRoyal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. The proceeding officer was ProfessorEric Sunderland. The results of all 22 local authority areas were announced individually, and the result was close enough that everything in fact hung on the announcement fromCarmarthenshire, which carried the Yes vote.[7] The difference between the 'agree' and 'disagree' vote was 6,721.[8][9]
| Council Area | Turnout | Votes | Proportion of votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agree Cytuno | Disagree Anghytuno | Agree Cytuno | Disagree Anghytuno | |||
| Anglesey | 56.9% | 15,649 | 15,095 | 50.9% | 49.1% | |
| Blaenau Gwent | 49.3% | 15,237 | 11,928 | 56.1% | 43.9% | |
| Bridgend | 50.6% | 27,632 | 23,172 | 54.4% | 45.6% | |
| Caerphilly | 49.3% | 34,830 | 28,841 | 55.7% | 44.3% | |
| Cardiff | 46.9% | 47,527 | 59,589 | 44.4% | 55.6% | |
| Carmarthenshire | 56.4% | 49,115 | 26,119 | 65.5% | 34.5% | |
| Ceredigion | 56.8% | 18,304 | 12,614 | 59.2% | 40.8% | |
| Conwy | 51.5% | 18,369 | 26,521 | 40.9% | 59.1% | |
| Denbighshire | 49.7% | 14,271 | 20,732 | 40.5% | 59.5% | |
| Flintshire | 41.0% | 17,746 | 28,707 | 38.2% | 61.8% | |
| Gwynedd | 59.8% | 35,425 | 19,859 | 64.1% | 35.9% | |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 49.5% | 12,707 | 9,121 | 58.2% | 41.8% | |
| Monmouthshire | 50.5% | 10,592 | 22,403 | 32.1% | 67.9% | |
| Neath Port Talbot | 51.9% | 36,730 | 18,463 | 66.5% | 33.5% | |
| Newport | 45.9% | 16,172 | 27,017 | 37.5% | 62.5% | |
| Pembrokeshire | 52.6% | 19,979 | 26,712 | 42.8% | 57.2% | |
| Powys | 56.2% | 23,038 | 30,966 | 42.7% | 57.3% | |
| Rhondda Cynon Taff | 49.9% | 51,201 | 36,362 | 58.5% | 41.5% | |
| Swansea | 47.1% | 42,789 | 39,561 | 53.0% | 47.0% | |
| Torfaen | 45.5% | 15,756 | 15,854 | 49.8% | 50.2% | |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 54.3% | 17,776 | 30,613 | 35.5% | 64.5% | |
| Wrexham | 42.4% | 18,574 | 22,449 | 44.3% | 55.7% | |
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