Liberal Democrats in Wales are pinning their 2026 Senedd election hopes on disillusionment with Keir Starmer and Labour.

THE Welsh Liberal Democrats met in Cardiff at the weekend for their latest conference with something of a spring in their step.

- Political editor Ruth Mosalski reports

After a bruising few years, there is something of a tone of optimism as the party looks ahead to 2026's Senedd election.

The party's presence in Wales dropped as a result of its coalition with the Conservatives in Westminster in 2010.

In the Senedd elections from 1999 to 2011 the Lib Dems returned six elected representatives. That plummeted to one in 2016 and in 2021, and even their most ardent supporters will admit that recovery has been slower here than in Westminster.

In that 2010 Westminster election, of the 40 seats, three were Lib Dems down one on the year before.

In the aftermath of the coalition, that dropped to one MP returned for the party in 2015 and none in 2017.

Jane Dodds, now their sole Senedd member, had a brief foray into Westminster politics, elected in a by-election in August 2019, only to lose her seat in the general election four months later. In 2024, the party saw one of its candidates returned.

David Chadwick became MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe in 2024, the only Lib Dem MP elected. He was helped by the Craig Williams factor the Conservative high-flier, who was one of then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's closest aides, saw his campaign disintegrate after he put a bet on the date of the general election. He not only saw himself on every major news channel and front page, but was dumped by his party and ended up coming third.

Mr Chadwick had thrown everything at his campaign he admitted it was a job he had long been aiming for, and the financial records show individual donations made in his name from 2023 until polling day totalled more then £48,000.

The night before their conference the party won a by-election in a Labour heartland, Cwmllynfell & Ystalyfera, where former midwife and district nurse Susan Grounds defeated Labour, who fell into fourth place. It was a first victory for a Liberal candidate in Cwmtawe since the days of David Lloyd George.