Welsh Government Transport Secretary Ken Skates has been appointed interim leader of Welsh Labour – taking over from Eluned Morgan after the First Minister lost her seat at yesterday’s Senedd election.
Skates received unanimous support from Welsh Labour’s new nine-strong group of Members of the Senedd at meetings held this morning of the party’s Executive Committee and the Senedd group.
He will serve as interim leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election in line with Welsh Labour rules.
Skates was first elected to the Senedd in 2011 and has held a series of senior Welsh Government roles – including Economy and Infrastructure Secretary and most recently Transport Secretary. He was re-elected to represent Fflint Wrecsam yesterday after a tense day in which Welsh Labour had at one point feared he might lose his seat.
His appointment comes less than 24 hours after Eluned Morgan became the first ever serving Welsh First Minister to lose her seat at an election, and the first leader of any government in the United Kingdom to lose her seat while in office.
Speaking after his appointment, Skates acknowledged the scale of Welsh Labour’s defeat directly.
“Today is just the beginning of a process that will help us to understand what we got wrong,” he said. “Because we did get it wrong. There is no reading of this result that endorses every action we have taken as a Party, and our task now is to take the time needed and to work out what has happened.”
The new interim leader said the task of rebuilding the party would fall to its entire membership.
“It is a task that will require every single one of us to take part in – every member, every councillor, every MS, MP, Lord and all roles in between,” he said. “But it is not a task that is beyond us.”
Skates set out his vision for Welsh Labour’s future direction, returning to the party’s history and traditions.
“I believe today, as I always have, that Welsh Labour is at its best when we are the champions of the people of Wales,” he said. “Our role is to serve, to fight for the issues that matter most.”
He invoked the party’s Welsh roots and key policy achievements. “We are the Party that first sent Keir Hardie to Parliament, that created the NHS,” Skates said. “We are the Party of devolution, the Party of free prescriptions, universal free school meals, social partnership and the future generations act.”
“We are a party with an incredible history of serving Wales and her people, and we have so much more to give.”
Skates also paid tribute to his predecessor.
“I would like to thank Eluned for everything she has done over the past 2 years as our First Minister, and in her 30 years of service to Wales and the Labour Party,” he said. “Her grit and determination in the face of true challenge is something we as a Party will always be proud of.”
“She broke the glass ceiling, and her role in history as the first woman to lead our Party and country is an achievement second to none.”
The Welsh Labour party will now begin the process of selecting a new permanent leader – though the timetable for that contest has not yet been confirmed.
Welsh Labour was reduced to just nine seats at yesterday’s election, down from 30 in the previous Senedd, with the party wiped out entirely in six constituencies including Sir Gaerfyrddin and Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd.
Plaid Cymru emerged as the largest party with 41 seats, with Reform UK securing a historic breakthrough at 34 seats. Coalition negotiations are now expected to follow, with Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth widely expected to become Wales’ next First Minister.
That would mark the first time since devolution began in 1999 that Wales has had a First Minister from a party other than Labour – and ends a century-long run of Welsh Labour electoral dominance dating back to 1922.
