Why the Senedd faces a seismic few months

THE summer recess has finally ended for Welsh Senedd Members, and as they returned to Cardiff Bay yesterday, rarely has there been such a crucial few months ahead.

- RUTH MOSALSKI

THE summer recess has finally ended for Welsh Senedd Members, and as they returned to Cardiff Bay yesterday, rarely has there been such a crucial few months ahead.

The physical Senedd building is in a state of flux with work ongoing in the main debating chamber to prepare for a new-look Welsh Parliament from next May.

And that's a pretty good metaphor for the state of the whole institution right now.

From the outside the Senedd building looks exactly the same with the sun glistening on its glass exterior. But inside? It’s a different story.

Because from May the Senedd will have 96, not 60, members and all the signs so far from Welsh-specific polling suggest that it may well be a heck of a change at the top. So far polls have projected that Labour will lose its grasp on power with Plaid and Reform UK as frontrunners.

It is very much a period of change in terms of the faces that will be on the Senedd benches.

We know, from Labour ranks at least, that lots of familiar faces won't be returning. Two former first ministers, Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething, will not return, nor will cabinet big-hitters Julie James, Jane Hutt and Lesley Griffiths.

Julie Morgan, with her decades of experience in Wales and Westminster, will also be leaving frontline politics.

But there is an added likelihood of an influx of new politicians and a huge number could be from a party that currently has a sole Senedd Member - Laura Anne-Jones, who has only recently defected from the Tories.