Labour voters are 'lending votes to Plaid', says ex MP

FORMER Labour MP Wayne David has written a blog suggesting there is only one reason Labour was trounced in Caerphilly during last week’s byelection. Mr David, who served as the Caerphilly MP from 2001 to 2024, said it’s “vitally important” to understand the context behind Labour's historic loss, claiming it can be boiled down to Labour voters “lending” their vote to Plaid Cymru in order to stop Reform UK winning seats in Wales.

- ELLIE GOSLEY

Former Labour MP for Caerphilly, Wayne David

In the by-election last week Welsh Labour suffered a historic defeat in Caerphilly and saw their vote share plummet by almost 35% compared to the 2021 Senedd election. Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle was elected as the new Senedd member for the area, a seat which Labour had held since devolution.

Labour came a distant third behind Plaid Cymru and Reform with just 3,713 votes compared to Plaid’s 12,113 and Reform’s 15,961.

Opposition politicians including Mr Whittle claimed the result showed Labour was “dead” in Wales and Keir Starmer admitted Labour needed to “reflect and regroup” after the defeat.

Writing for the Labour List, Mr David suggested that the key reason why his party failed to perform well in the constituency was because people voted to stop Reform winning their first Senedd seat.

He also suggested that levels of support for Labour and Plaid Cymru were similar at the midpoint of the campaign and blamed a Wales-wide opinion poll for pushing people towards Plaid in order to stop Reform.