Ken Skates has been confirmed as the permanent leader of Welsh Labour — hours after the party helped inflict the heaviest defeat yet on the Plaid Cymru government it now leads the opposition to.
Welsh Labour says all nine members of its Senedd group nominated Skates when nominations opened last Thursday, confirming his appointment without a wider contest.
Among the nine is Mike Hedges, the Gŵyr Abertawe MS and the region’s longest-serving Labour member in the Senedd.
His deputy is a Swansea MP. Carolyn Harris, the member for Swansea East, is deputy leader of Welsh Labour, and said Skates had her full backing.
“He has my full backing as he undertakes the big task ahead of him — listening, learning, rebuilding and doing that crucial job of holding Plaid Cymru, and Reform UK, to account in the Senedd,” she said.
A leader confirmed in a week of open warfare
The confirmation lands in the middle of the sharpest fight of the new Senedd term. The Plaid government’s £294m budget was voted down 49–44 on Tuesday night, with Labour among the parties that rejected it — and the government’s finance minister accusing Labour of destructive opposition.
The wreckage he inherits
Skates became interim leader in May, after Eluned Morgan lost her seat at the election and stood down as leader.
That election ended 27 years of Labour rule in Wales, with Rhun ap Iorwerth confirmed as the first Plaid Cymru First Minister — and Labour reduced to nine seats in the enlarged 96-member Senedd, having held 30 of 60 in the old chamber.
Lee Waters, the former Llanelli MS, said after the result that the party faces an “existential crisis” — conceding the 20mph policy he masterminded had come at a political price.
Two coronations in one year
The pattern is now familiar at both ends of the M4. At Westminster, Andy Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer as UK Labour leader without a contest — the man now tipped to be Britain’s next prime minister — and Skates’ confirmation makes it two Labour leaders installed unopposed this year.
Harris was on the losing side of the first. In May she publicly backed Starmer to stay, while Gower’s Tonia Antoniazzi joined the calls for him to go.
Four leaders in under three years
Skates is Welsh Labour’s fourth leader in under three years. Mark Drakeford’s departure triggered the last contested leadership election — and it turned on a Neath politician.
Jeremy Miles, then the Neath MS, narrowly lost that contest to Vaughan Gething in March 2024. Gething stood down within months, and Eluned Morgan took over that summer without a contest.
Morgan’s resignation after May’s election defeat brought Skates in as interim leader. His confirmation this week means three of the four leaders since Drakeford have been installed unopposed — the Miles-Gething race remains the only time the members have had a say.
Miles did not seek re-election to the Senedd in May.
The Skates record — and the Llanelli connection
Skates was first elected in 2011 and held several Welsh Government roles, including Transport Secretary and Economy and Infrastructure Secretary. He was re-elected in May for the new Fflint Wrecsam constituency.
His return to transport in 2024 came at the expense of a local figure. Skates took the brief over from Waters, then the Llanelli MS, whose time in the role produced two of the most contested policies of recent years — the default 20mph limit and the ban on most new road building.
Skates moved to soften both: announcing a route back to 30mph for some roads, and easing the government’s stance on new road schemes.
“I joined the party as a 14-year-old, and my belief still stands that no child’s future should be determined by their background,” he said of his appointment.
“The Labour movement for me is a movement for fairness, justice, security and liberty. It is a movement that seeks to empower people and communities, to fight against injustice, intolerance, nepotism and cruelty.”
