The party left without a single Senedd member in Carmarthenshire, and with only one in Swansea, will be told today why voters walked away.
Welsh Labour is publishing an independent review of its election defeat at its conference in Llandudno.
Leader Ken Skates, the Fflint Wrecsam MS, says its findings are “difficult”.
He said: “People felt that we had stopped listening, public services were not improving quickly enough and we had taken their support for granted.”
What the Welsh Labour election review looked at
A team at Public First led by Professor Anand Menon carried out the review, and he will present it at 11.15am.
Welsh Labour says it draws on new polling, focus groups, the party’s own canvassing records and the results of every Senedd election since 1999. Staff, members and candidates were also asked for their views.
The full findings have not been released in advance.
Skates will respond in a speech straight afterwards, and the party says he will promise to rebuild the trust it has lost.
‘Catastrophic’: how Skates describes May’s result
The Labour leader called the result “catastrophic for the party” and said the reasons for it “needed a dispassionate assessment”.
Labour commissioned the review, he said, “because we needed an honest account of why we lost and what must change”.
Its task now was “to earn trust again” and to “demonstrate through our actions that we have learned”.
How Labour’s vote collapsed in Swansea and Carmarthenshire
Labour went from 30 seats to nine in May, ending 27 years in government in Wales.
In Sir Gaerfyrddin it took 6,458 votes and no seats, leaving Carmarthenshire without a Labour member in the Senedd for the first time.
It was shut out of Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd as well.
In Gŵyr Abertawe, Labour came third with 11,195 votes. Mike Hedges held the party’s only seat in the city, and Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart missed out.
The then First Minister, Eluned Morgan, lost her own seat and resigned as leader the same day.
‘We did get it wrong’: what Labour figures said after the count
Skates used similar language when he became interim leader the day after the count. “We did get it wrong,” he said then.
Others in the party went further. A senior Labour figure, who was not named, called it “functionally broken” and said the defeat had been “a decade in the making”.
In Swansea, Hedges told of a voter who had backed him for 30 years and apologised for not doing so this time. “I can’t count apologies in the votes,” he said.
Stewart put it down to fear of Reform UK. People who could not vote Labour, he said, “didn’t want to go to Reform and have clearly opted for Plaid Cymru”.
Skates was confirmed as permanent leader in July without a contest, after all nine Labour MSs nominated him.
Six months to the council elections
The Llandudno conference is Labour’s first since the election, and comes six months before council elections across Wales.
Labour runs Swansea Council. Stewart, who said in May there must be “no dodging, no deflection”, has said his group will be “standing on our record of delivery”.
Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris, Welsh Labour’s deputy leader, and Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Kinnock are also due to speak.
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
