Labour humiliated in third place after Plaid triumph in Caerphilly

LABOUR has suffered a humiliating by-election defeat in its Welsh heartlands.

- By Katie Harris Senior Political Correspondent

Nationalist party Plaid Cymru won the Senedd seat in Caerphilly with 47% of the vote, while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK came second on 36%.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party was third with only 11% in a constituency it has held since the Welsh Parliament was established in 1999. The Tories had just 2%.

Mr Farage insisted that next May’s Senedd elections would be a “two-horse race” between his insurgent party and Plaid. He thought Reform’s 12,000 votes “would be enough, but it wasn’t”, adding: “The collapse of the Labour vote to Plaid was to a party that people know well and to a popular local politician.”