First Minister Eluned Morgan has lost her seat at the Senedd election – and resigned as Welsh Labour leader on the spot.
Speaking from the stage at her Ceredigion Penfro count this afternoon, the defeated Labour leader said her party needed to take a hard look at itself.
“I’ve lost my seat here in Ceredigion Penfro and I will be stepping down as Welsh Labour leader,” she told the count. “I take responsibility for the Labour result in Wales.”
Morgan received 6,495 votes in the constituency – just 170 more than the Green Party – finishing well behind Plaid Cymru, who took 31,943 votes.
Reform UK won 23,003 votes in the constituency, with the Conservatives taking 14,789.
Her defeat is historic on multiple fronts. She is the first ever serving Welsh First Minister to lose her seat at an election since the Senedd was established in 1999.
And she is the first leader of any government in the UK to lose her seat while in office.
Morgan, who became Wales’ first female First Minister in 2024, said she was proud of what Welsh Labour had achieved in government but acknowledged the scale of the challenge facing public services.
“I’m very proud of what Welsh Labour has achieved over all the years we have led in the Senedd,” she said. “But today the pressures on public services are enormous and change is not coming fast enough.”
She told the count that voters were demanding answers Welsh Labour could not deliver. “Many expect simple answers to very complex questions but there are no simple answers and the budgets are limited,” she said.
And she signalled that the political landscape had been fundamentally reshaped. “The age of two-party dominance is dead,” she said.
The result triggers an immediate Welsh Labour leadership contest – and means Wales will need a new First Minister.
Welsh Labour now faces the prospect of selecting an interim leader within hours, with the new Senedd due to meet for the first time in the coming weeks.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to Morgan in a statement issued shortly after her defeat.
“Eluned Morgan has been a formidable First Minister and tireless champion for Wales,” he said. “She broke barriers and has never stopped fighting for families in the communities she loves.”
The Prime Minister paid tribute to Morgan’s record in office. “Together, we have worked to lift children out of poverty, cut hospital waiting lists, and create thousands of new jobs,” he said.
“I want to thank Eluned Morgan for the over 30 years of service she has already given to our country and our party. I have no doubt her contribution to Wales will endure.”
The tribute came as senior Welsh Labour figures earlier today called for Sir Keir himself to consider his position over the scale of the party’s defeat in Wales.
Welsh political expert Professor Laura McAllister told BBC Wales that Morgan had been dealt an impossible hand.
“Let’s be fair to the First Minister, I don’t think she could have done much to salvage this election,” she said.
McAllister said Morgan had received no support from her UK party. “The odds were stacked so hard against her, she didn’t get an ounce of help from her UK party, or the Prime Minister,” she said. “The pleas she made were flat turned down.”
She added that Morgan had inherited a difficult legacy. “She inherited a divided party that had lost its energy and soul,” McAllister said.
But she said Welsh Labour had still made errors during the campaign. “Having said all that, they made some fundamental mistakes with the campaign,” she said.
The Ceredigion Penfro result also saw the return of former Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies, who held his seat. His Senedd colleague Samuel Kurtz failed to be re-elected.
Plaid Cymru took three seats in the constituency, with Reform UK taking two and the Conservatives one.
Morgan’s defeat brings to an end a remarkable political journey. She rose through Welsh Government to become Health Minister and then First Minister last year, taking over from Vaughan Gething following his resignation.
Her tenure as First Minister was always going to be a challenging one – taking over a party in Wales that had been in power for more than a quarter of a century and was facing the most difficult electoral landscape it had ever seen.
This morning, in our overnight coverage, we reported that senior Welsh Labour sources had been describing Morgan’s seat as on a knife edge.
That knife edge has now fallen.
The Senedd vote also ends a century-long run of Labour election successes in Wales – with Welsh Labour having won every major Welsh election since 1922.
The Welsh Labour party will now move quickly to begin the process of selecting a new leader, who will become Wales’ next First Minister at a moment of unprecedented political turbulence.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who was re-elected in Bangor Conwy Mon earlier this afternoon, signalled his party was ready to step up.
“It has become clear that Wales has demanded that change of leadership,” he said. “I look forward to saying more about this later as the full picture becomes complete. Plaid Cymru is ready to serve.”
Polling expert Sir John Curtice has projected Plaid Cymru will win between 41 and 46 seats – short of the 49 needed for an overall majority – with Reform UK on 32 to 34.
Coalition negotiations look almost certain to follow.
