{"id":39827,"date":"2025-10-24T08:07:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/plaid-cymru-eyes-senedd-success-after-historic-caerphilly-by-election\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T08:07:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:07:57","slug":"plaid-cymru-eyes-senedd-success-after-historic-caerphilly-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/plaid-cymru-eyes-senedd-success-after-historic-caerphilly-by-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaid Cymru eyes Senedd success after historic Caerphilly by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Gareth Lewis<\/span>Wales political editor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Richard Tunnicliffe’s 3,713 votes saw Labour drop to third amid a 27% swing away from the party in one of its strongholds<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In a matter of moments, more than 100 years of history came crashing down for Labour as the results were read out.<\/p>\n

For Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle, his victory – at the 14th time of asking – must feel like it has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n

This could be the sign that voters see his party as a viable alternative to Labour, with next May’s Welsh Parliament election on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The Labour stronghold has been breached and Plaid has stormed it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For Reform, who had such high expectations, there are lessons to be learned.<\/p>\n

Despite surging across the UK, they fell short in this big test.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their ambition to be the biggest party after next year’s Welsh Parliament election has taken a knock.<\/p>\n

There will be questions about how effective the party is at getting their supporters out to vote, as the party had been banking on a high turnout being good for them.<\/p>\n

The turnout was 50.43% – higher than any previous Senedd election.<\/p>\n

For Labour, this was an awful result.<\/p>\n

If their 11% vote share is mirrored across Wales next May, under the new proportional voting system, they could be facing a wipeout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MarkMark Lewis\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rhun ap Iorwerth’s Plaid Cymru has breached Welsh Labour’s stronghold<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Before the vote, one source told me about the concept of a good defeat – something the party could work off.<\/p>\n

This was not it.<\/p>\n

The party’s Members of the Senedd<\/a> meet on Friday to start the difficult conversation of how to turn this round.<\/p>\n

One Labour source suggested to me that the party will need a “retail offer” – something stand-out – that will grab voters’ attention.<\/p>\n

“People are desperate for material improvement to their lives,” the source said.<\/p>\n

“We can talk about improvements and we can talk about legacy issues like free prescriptions but there needs to be a big sell on something new.”<\/p>\n

The deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies said the party needed a “compelling story”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Horwood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Llyr Powell was predicted to be a contender for victory in the by-election<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Another source said that First Minister Eluned Morgan needs to try to differentiate herself even further from her UK colleagues.<\/p>\n

She has tried this with her concept of the Red Welsh Way<\/a>, but has also spoken of a partnership in power.<\/p>\n

Welsh Labour and UK Labour working together has its benefits, but it was never going to be easy.<\/p>\n

Voters in Caerphilly have not bought the idea that two Labour governments working together is better for Wales.<\/p>\n

Next May, the entire Welsh electorate could deliver the same verdict.<\/p>\n

For now, whatever happens, Caerphilly has written itself into the pages of Welsh political history.<\/p>\n

We are about to find out if this result is an eye-opening anomaly or a genuinely new chapter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth LewisWales political editor Getty Images Richard Tunnicliffe’s 3,713 votes saw Labour drop to third amid a 27% swing away from the party in one of its strongholds In a matter of moments, more than 100 years of history came crashing down for Labour as the results were read out. For Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[2498,5964,1084,2919,1107,6009,3418,3151],"class_list":["post-39827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","tag-byelection","tag-caerphilly","tag-cymru","tag-eyes","tag-historic","tag-plaid","tag-senedd","tag-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39829,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39827\/revisions\/39829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}