THE NEW YORK TIMES: Plaid Cymru, a center-left nationalist party, defeated the right-wing Reform U.K. and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour in a race seen as a test of his popularity.
A center-left nationalist candidate defeated the governing Labour Party and Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform U.K. in a Welsh Parliament special election on Thursday that has been closely watched as a potential bellwether of major upheaval in wider elections next year.
Plaid Cymru, a party that supports Welsh independence from Britain, had been vying with Reform U.K. in polls leading up to Thursday’s vote in Caerphilly — for decades a Labour Party stronghold — amid poor approval ratings for both Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government and its main opposition, the center-right Conservatives.
Its candidate, Lindsay Whittle, was elected with 47 percent of the vote. Reform U.K.’s candidate was second on 36 percent, despite a high-profile campaign joined by Mr. Farage, which he had said could be the start of “spectacular” victories for the party in other parts of Wales. Labour’s candidate placed third, with 11 percent.
The election was seen as the latest bruising test for Mr. Starmer’s Labour government, which has had remarkably low approval ratings for a party that won a landslide victory in July 2024, while Reform U.K. has surged in the polls. » | Lizzie Dearden | Reporting from London | Friday, October 24, 2025
As a result of Brexit, Wales would be best served by being an independent country in the European Union. It would bring prosperity to Wales just as it has brought prosperity to the Republic of Ireland. Saying that Wales is too small to be independent might well have been true at one time, but today, with the existence of the EU, it is a nonsense. There are other small, independent countries in the EU. Luxembourg is a great case in point. Luxembourg is very small and very prosperous. Bring true, lasting prosperity to Wales by being an independent country in the EU. Being joined at the hip with England has never brought true, lasting prosperity to Wales. In any case, the Welshman's roots are in Europe. Welsh Celts can be traced back to Austria, to Hallein, apparently. (You can google it.) Is it a coincidence that the very word for salt in Welsh is halen? — © Mark Alexander