Welsh Labour Llafur Cymru | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Eluned Morgan |
| Deputy Leader | Carolyn Harris |
| General Secretary | Joe Lock |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Headquarters | 1 Cathedral Road Cardiff CF11 9HA |
| Student wing | Welsh Labour Students |
| Youth wing | Welsh Young Labour |
| Membership(2022) |  18,000[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
| International affiliation | Progressive Alliance Socialist International (observer) |
| UK Parliament affiliation | Labour Party (UK) |
| Colours | Red |
| Slogan | Wales' Future |
| House of Commons | 27 / 32 (Welsh seats) |
| Senedd | 29 / 60 |
| Councillors in Wales[5] | 496 / 1,234 |
| Councils led inWales | 12 / 22 |
| Police and crime commissioners | 3 / 4 |
| Election symbol | |
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| Website | |
www | |
Welsh Labour (Welsh:Llafur Cymru), formerly known as theLabour Party in Wales (Welsh:Y Blaid Lafur yng Nghymru),[6] is an autonomous section of theUnited KingdomLabour Party inWales and the largest party in the modernpolitics of Wales. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at everyUnited Kingdom general election since 1922, every National Assembly (nowSenedd) election since 1999, and allelections to the European Parliament in the period 1979–2004 and in 2014.[7] Welsh Labour holds 27 of the 32 Welsh seats in theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd, and 576 of the 1,264 councillors inprincipal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities.
It has longestwinning streak of any political party in the world and has been described as "by some distance the democratic world's most successful election-winning machine".[8]
By the end of the 19th century, most of Wales' adult male population were able to vote. They predominantly supported theLiberal Party partially due to the influence of theNonconformist religious movement on Welsh society as well as the party's association with various other radical causes, including improving the welfare of the working classes.[9]
In 1893, theIndependent Labour party was founded; it established branches in Wales, but did not initially gain mass appeal. In 1900, theLabour Representation Committee was founded by socialist societies and trade unions, the organisation from which the Labour Party would evolve.[9]Keir Hardie, the first leader of theIndependent Labour Party, was elected as member forMerthyr Tydfil in 1900. When theNational Union of Mineworkers affiliated to the party in 1908, their four sponsored Welsh MPs became Labour MPs.[10] Over the next few years, there was a steady rise in the number of Labour councillors and MPs in Wales. Particularly after theFirst World War, an expanded electorate and the damage the conflict caused to the Liberals reputation contributed to a major shift in support towards Labour in industrial areas. In the1922 general election, Labour won half the Welsh parliamentary seats.[11][10]
After 1922, Labour maintained consistent electoral dominance in Wales, winning between 40% and 45% at general elections for the rest of the interwar period.[12][13][14][15][16][17] In1931, when the Labour party collapsed to just 52 seats, the 16 seats it won in the southern Welsh valleys constituted its largest regional stronghold anywhere in Britain.[11][10] After difficult years in the 1920s and '30s, followingWorld War II there was keen desire in Wales like elsewhere in the UK to avoid a return to the conditions of theinterwar era, and the Labour victory at the1945 general election was strongly endorsed by the Welsh electorate.[18][19][20][21]
In 1947, an all Wales unit was formed within the Labour Party for the first time with the merger of South Wales Regional Council of Labour and the constituency parties of north and mid Wales. This change was based on the Labour Party's support for central planning in the Welsh economy and was not at that stage any kind of endorsement of the idea of devolution.[22][23]
Labour expanded its dominance of Welsh politics in the early 1950s, extending its influence in rural and Welsh speaking areas beyond its traditional industrial heartlands.[22] Though Labour went into opposition after 1951, the Labour Party in Wales polled over 50 per cent of the popular vote at each general election, winning seemingly impregnable majorities in the valleys of south Wales.Aneurin Bevan, for example, was routinely returned forEbbw Vale with 80 per cent of the vote. The pattern was similar in some 15 other seats in the region. Through its actions in local government and proposals for central government the Labour Party in Wales was perceived to be a modernising party committed to investing in infrastructure and serious about providing jobs and improving public services.[24]
In the1964 general election, the Labour Party in Wales polled some58 per cent of the Welsh vote and won 28 seats.[25] TheWilson government gave the Labour Party in Wales the chance to enact its promise (following theConservative government's appointment of a Minister of Welsh Affairs in the mid-1950s) to create the post ofSecretary of State for Wales and aWelsh Office.[26] At the1966 United Kingdom general election, Labour's support in Wales reached a peak, winning 61% of the vote and all but four of Wales's 36 parliamentary constituencies.[11]
Within three months, however,Gwynfor Evans sensationally capturedCarmarthen forPlaid Cymru at aby-election and his party came close to victory at the1967 Rhondda West and1968 Caerphilly by-elections, achieving swings against Labour of 30 and 40 per cent respectively.[27][28][29]
The emergence of Plaid Cymru (and theScottish National Party) prompted the Wilson government to establish theKilbrandon Commission, causing the Labour Party in Wales to consider once more the case for devolution – this time in its favour. Labour victory in theFebruary 1974 general election pushed devolution onto the political agenda, culminating in a decisive vote against a Welsh Assembly in a 1979 referendum.[30]
Plaid Cymru's threat in the industrial heartland fell away in the 1970s, but it and the Conservatives gained ground in Welsh-speaking and coastal Wales respectively, where Labour's roots were shallower. By the1979 general election, the Labour Party in Wales held 22 of the 36 parliamentary seats, albeit with a 48 per cent share of the vote.[31]
This relative decline was eclipsed by a dramatic fall in Labour support at the1983 General Election. In contrast to the 1950s, the swing against Labour in Britain was matched in Wales, where voters showed themselves just as unwilling to endorseMichael Foot's markedly more left-wing manifesto. The Labour Party in Wales polled a mere 37.5 per cent of the popular vote, yielding 20 seats. A rampant Conservative Party, by contrast, captured 14 seats (including three of the four Cardiff constituencies) and exceeded 30 per cent of the vote for the second election in succession. The Labour Party in Wales's problems were compounded by a strongSDP–Liberal Alliance performance, gaining 23 per cent of the vote, though few seats, at what was to be the height of its success.[32]
Theminers' strike of 1984–1985 appeared to offer the Labour Party in Wales an electoral opportunity, despite the invidious position in which it placed the new Labour leader,Neil Kinnock. At the1987 General Election the Welsh party polled 45 per cent, winning 24 seats and winning another two from the Conservatives at by-elections in 1989 and 1991.[33][34]
However, Conservative policy in Wales could be said to have helped to break the traditional compact between the Labour Party in Wales and the Welsh electorate. The party was ineffective when faced with the psychological trauma of restructuring and de-industrialising the Welsh economy. Meanwhile, the seemingly perpetual Conservative rule, based on its electoral power outside Wales, reignited debate within the Labour Party in Wales on devolution.[35]
UnderJohn Smith, Labour committed itself to devolution for Wales andScotland, a commitment that survived his early death.[36] By1997, the Labour Party in Wales captured 34 of Wales's 40 seats, wiping out the Conservatives' Welsh representation and polling 55 per cent.[37] The stage was set for anotherdevolution referendum, this time won by the narrowest of margins.[38]
In 1998, the leader of the Labour Party in WalesRon Davies, resigned. In 1999, Wales voted in its first Assembly members;Plaid Cymru achieve 28% of the vote but Labour won with 38% and governed as a minority government. In February 2000, the first assembly leader,Alun Michael resigned following a vote of no confidence on the matter of European funding for Wales. The new leader,Rhodri Morgan, rebranded the Labour Party in Wales as Welsh Labour,[39][40][41][42] and in October that year, Welsh Labour and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition lasting three years. In April 2001 the Welsh government announced free entry for museums and galleries (8 months after a similar announcement in England). In 2002, free bus passes were introduced in Wales, differently to England. Welsh Labour achieve 40% the Assembly election vote in 2003. In 2004, theRichard Commission suggested increasing the legislative powers of the Assembly. In 2006, theGovernment of Wales Act 2006 granted the Assembly new powers. The assembly formed the Welsh Assembly government, which is separate from the legislature. In 2007, Welsh Labour introduced free prescriptions in Wales.[43]
In the2007 elections, Welsh Labour's share of the vote fell to 32.2 per cent, its second lowest since theUK general election of 1923. Its seat number fell by four to 26: 11 more than the second largest party, Plaid Cymru. On 25 May Rhodri Morgan was again nominated as First Minister. On 27 June, Morgan concluded theOne Wales agreement with Plaid Cymru, which was approved by Labour rank and file on 6 July. On 1 December 2009,Carwyn Jones became the new leader of Welsh Labour.[44]
In March 2010, Welsh Labour twice refused to cross thePCS unionpicket line, leading to strong criticism for not doing so from theWelsh Conservatives and theWelsh Liberal Democrats. Carwyn Jones argued that this refusal was ingrained in Labour's thinking[45] At the 2010 UK general election which ended Labour's long period of government across the UK,[46] Labour also lost seats and vote share in Wales mainly to the conservatives.[47] At the end of the One Wales agreement in2011, Labour gained seats in the Welsh assembly at the expense of their Non-Conservative opponents.[48] At the2015 UK general election, Labour saw a slight uptick in vote share and made a net gain of one seat in Wales.[49]
On6 May 2016, Welsh Labour won 29 of the 60 seats in the Assembly elections and secured a fifth term in government,[50] in a minority coalition with the sole remaining Welsh Lib Dem member,Kirsty Williams.[51] In 2017 cabinet was reshuffled withDafydd Elis-Thomas joining it. Plaid Cymru also participated in an alliance with the party from 2016 to 2017.[52] Welsh Labour supported remain at the2016 EU membership referendum, though most Welsh voters in that referendum ultimately chose leave.[53][54] Labour won a plurality of votes and majority of seats in Wales at the2017 and2019 UK general elections, with the overall trend of the party's fortunes broadly mirroring its results across Britain; gaining seats and vote share in 2017 and losing both in 2019.[55][56]
I think it is [...] really important and fascinating that after 22 years the Welsh Labour Party is still going to be an essential component of the next Welsh Government. London has become a Labour heartland, Scotland is very much not a Labour heartland, seats that had reliably voted Labour up until 2010 have massively trended towards the Conservatives and yet the Welsh Labour party; the dude abides...
In the2021 Senedd election, Welsh Labour's share of the vote rose by about 5 per cent and the party won half the seats in the Senedd, equalling its best-ever result in 2003.[57][58] A few months later the party formed an agreement with Plaid Cymru over a wide range of policy including included free-at-the-point-of-usesocial care, expanding services for children and restrictions on second homes.[59] The deal was the third time the two parties had agreed to work together in the era of devolution.[60]
Welsh Labour is formally part of the Labour Party, not separately registered with theElectoral Commission under the terms of thePolitical Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.[61] In 2016, the Labour Party Conference voted to institute the office of leader of Welsh Labour, a position currently held byEluned Morgan.[62] Welsh Labour has autonomy inpolicy formulation for the areas nowdevolved to theSenedd and in candidate selection for it. Party objectives are set by the Welsh Executive Committee (WEC), which plays a similar function to the Labour Party'sNational Executive Committee (NEC) indevolved responsibilities. Welsh Labour also has its ownparliamentary group within theParliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in theHouse of Commons, where it also has its ownwhip.[63][64] Since 2016, Welsh Labour's whip in the PLP has beenJessica Morden MP.[65][66]
The Welsh Executive Committee contains representatives of each section of the party – government,MPs,MSs,MEPs,councillors,trade unions andConstituency Labour Parties (CLPs – the basic unit of organisation throughout the Labour Party). All Wales's 32 CLPs are registered as accounting units with the Electoral Commission.[67]
Welsh Labour headquarters inCardiff organises the party'selection campaigns at all levels of governmentCommunity Councils,Unitary Authorities, theSenedd andWestminster, supports the CLPs and branches in membership matters and performs secretarial functions for the Senedd Labour Party (SLP) and the party's policy-making process. It also organises the annual conference – the sovereign decision-making body of the party in Wales – provides legal and constitutional advice and arbitrate on certain disciplinary matters.
In recent years, there has been some decline for Labour in Wales. The2009 European Parliament election saw the party fail to come first in an election in Wales for the first time since 1918 (finishing second behind theConservatives)[68][69] and in the2010 general election Labour had its worst general election result in Wales in its history. If the swing in Wales were repeated across the UK, the Conservatives would have won a landslide victory of over 100 seats; in some, such asPontypridd, Welsh Labour lost over 16 per cent of its vote. In the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections, Labour regained half the seats in the National Assembly. In the2014 European Parliament election, Labour topped the poll in Wales with a swing of 7.9 percentage points. The 2015 general election saw Labour achieve its second lowest vote share in Wales during the post-World War II era.
In the 2017 general election, the decline in parliamentary elections was reversed – Labour raised its vote share to 48.9 per cent, its highest in a general election in Wales since 1997, winning 28 of the 40 Welsh seats in Westminster. However, the 2019 general election saw the party again achieve a fairly poor result by historic standards. Contrastingly, the 2021 Senedd election saw the party match its best ever result at a devolved election and almost its best ever vote share.
In the2024 general election in Wales, Labour won 27 seats.[70]
| Election | Wales | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | Seats | ||
| 1945 | 58.5 | 25 / 35 | |
| 1950 | 58.1 | 27 / 36 |  2 |
| 1951 | 60.5 | 27 / 36 |  |
| 1955 | 57.6 | 27 / 36 | |
| 1959 | 56.4 | 27 / 36 | |
| 1964 | 57.8 | 28 / 36 | 1 |
| 1966 | 60.7 | 32 / 36 | 4 |
| 1970 | 51.6 | 27 / 36 | 5 |
| Feb 1974 | 46.8 | 24 / 36 | 3 |
| Oct 1974 | 49.5 | 23 / 36 | 1 |
| 1979* | 48.6 | 22 / 36 | 1 |
| 1983 | 37.5 | 20 / 38 | 2 |
| 1987 | 45.1 | 24 / 38 | 4 |
| 1992 | 49.5 | 27 / 38 | 3 |
| 1997 | 54.8 | 34 / 40 | 7 |
| 2001 | 48.6 | 34 / 40 | |
| 2005 | 42.7 | 29 / 40 | 5 |
| 2010 | 36.3 | 26 / 40 | 3 |
| 2015 | 37.1 | 25 / 40 | 1 |
| 2017 | 48.9 | 28 / 40 | 3 |
| 2019 | 40.9 | 22 / 40 | 6 |
| 2024 | 37.0 | 27 / 32 | 5 |
* Includes theSpeaker.
| Election | Constituency | Regional | Total seats | +/– | Government | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| 1999 | 384,671 | 37.6 | 27 / 40 | 361,657 | 35.5 | 1 / 20 | 28 / 60 | Lab–LD | |
| 2003 | 340,515 | 40.0 | 30 / 40 | 310,658 | 36.6 | 0 / 20 | 30 / 60 | 2 | Minority |
| 2007 | 314,925 | 32.2 | 24 / 40 | 288,954 | 29.7 | 2 / 20 | 26 / 60 | 4 | Lab–Plaid |
| 2011 | 401,677 | 42.3 | 28 / 40 | 349,935 | 36.9 | 2 / 20 | 30 / 60 | 4 | Minority |
| 2016 | 353,866 | 34.7 | 27 / 40 | 319,196 | 31.5 | 2 / 20 | 29 / 60 | 1 | Lab–LD |
| 2021 | 443,047 | 39.9 | 27 / 40 | 401,770 | 36.2 | 3 / 20 | 30 / 60 | 1 | Minority |
| Election | Wales | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | Seats | ||
| 1979 | 41.5 | 3 / 4 | |
| 1984 | 44.5 | 3 / 4 | |
| 1989 | 48.9 | 4 / 4 | 1 |
| 1994 | 55.9 | 5 / 5 | 1 |
| 1999 | 31.8 | 2 / 5 | 3 |
| 2004 | 32.5 | 2 / 4 | |
| 2009 | 20.3 | 1 / 4 | 1 |
| 2014 | 28.1 | 1 / 4 | |
| 2019 | 15.3 | 1 / 4 | |
| Year | Votes | Share of votes | Seats won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 404,013 | 43.6% | 726 / 1,272 |
| 1999 | 338,470 | 34.4% | 563 / 1,270 |
| 2004 | 278,193 | 30.6% | 479 / 1,263 |
| 2008 | 253,029 | 26.6% | 345 / 1,270 |
| 2012* | 304,466 | 35.6% | 577 / 1,235 |
| 2017 | 294,989 | 30.4% | 468 / 1,271 |
| 2022 | 323,075 | 34% | 526 / 1,271 |
There are currently 15 Labour Members in the House of Lords from Wales, excludingBaroness Morgan of Ely, who is currently on leave of absence.[71]
| No. | Name | Date Ennobled |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lord Anderson of Swansea | 2005 |
| 2. | Baroness Gale of Blaenrhondda | 1999 |
| 3. | Lord Griffiths of Burry Port | 2004 |
| 4. | Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty | 2005 |
| 5. | Lord Jones of Deeside | 2001 |
| 6. | Lord Hain of Neath | 2015 |
| 7. | Lord Howarth of Newport | 2005 |
| 8. | Baroness Jones of Whitchurch | 2006 |
| 9. | Lord Morgan of Aberdyfi | 2000 |
| 10. | Lord Murphy of Torfaen | 2015 |
| 11. | Lord Rowlands | 2004 |
| 12. | Lord Touhig | 2010 |
| 13. | Baroness Wilcox of Newport | 2019 |
| 14. | Lord Hanson of Flint | 2024 |
| 15. | Lord Jones of Penybont | 2025 |
| Leader | From | To | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .jpg) | Ron Davies | 19 September 1998[72] | 29 October 1998 |
| 2 |  | Alun Michael | 20 February 1999 | 9 February 2000 |
| 3 | .jpg) | Rhodri Morgan | 9 February 2000 | 1 December 2009 |
| 4 | _(cropped).jpg) | Carwyn Jones | 1 December 2009 | 6 December 2018 |
| 5 | .jpg) | Mark Drakeford | 7 December 2018 | 16 March 2024 |
| 6 | .jpg) | Vaughan Gething | 16 March 2024 | 24 July 2024 |
| 7 | .jpg) | Eluned Morgan | 24 July 2024 | Incumbent |
| No. | Image | Name | Term start | Term end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .jpg) | Carolyn Harris | 21 April 2018 | Incumbent |
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