Rhun ap Iorwerth to Become Wales' New First Minister within Days

Screenshot taken from this BBC article. | Rhun ap Iowerth could be first minister as early as Tuesday | GETTY IMAGES
BBC: Wales is set to be led by its first Plaid Cymru first minister, after three other Senedd parties indicated they would either back Rhun ap Iorwerth's nomination or not oppose him.

Plaid, with 43 seats, and Reform, with 34, are now the only big parties in Cardiff Bay.

In the Senedd vote, which could be as soon as Tuesday, ap Iorwerth needs more votes than any other candidate, rather than a majority of all Members of the Senedd (MSs), to be the winner.

Ken Skates, interim Labour leader after Eluned Morgan lost her seat, has indicated that his group will abstain, as will sole Liberal Democrat MS Jane Dodds.

But the Green Party, with two MSs, will back ap Iorwerth, meaning he cannot now be blocked. » | Adrian Browne | Wales political reporter | Sunday, May 10, 2026

Why Welsh Voters Turned Their Backs on the Labour Party after 100 Years

THE GUARDIAN: Disregard from UK Labour and struggling public services are just some of reasons behind ‘astonishing’ collapse

This screenshot has been taken from this Guardian article. | Former first minister Eluned Morgan became the first leader of a government in the UK to lose their seat while in office. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
By Friday night, Keir Starmer and much of the Westminster Labour group were quietly relieved that the local election results in England hadn’t been quite as bad as feared. In Wales, however, Labour’s collapse in the Senedd was even more total than the most pessimistic predictions.

For more than 100 years, Welsh Labour was the democratic world’s most successful election-winning machine, but the political behemoth limped into third place this week with just nine seats in a 96-seat parliament. A new chapter in Wales’s political and cultural history has opened: pro-independence Plaid Cymru is set to form a minority government.

“For those of us who’ve only known Labour domination … the fact that it could collapse with such dramatic completeness – it’s quite hard to convey the shock. It was just astonishing. Labour was absolutely mullered,” said Richard Wyn Jones, the director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University.

“We’ve known Labour was in deep trouble in the post-industrial valleys … but the fact that Plaid could win half of the 12 seats in Cardiff? Genuinely everywhere you look, it’s hard to identify any solid territory they can actually rebuild on.” » | Bethan McKernan and Jamie Grierson | Saturday, May 9, 2026

Plaid Cymru Ready to Run Wales, Leader Says, after Labour's Historic Senedd Election Collapse

BBC: Plaid Cymru's leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says he is ready to run the Welsh government after a stunning Senedd election victory left his party the largest group in Wales' parliament.

The historic vote saw Reform UK come second, pushing Labour into third and ending a century-long run of election success in Wales.

Plaid fell short of a majority in the 96-member Senedd, but with 43 seats has a better chance than anyone of forming a government with the help of at least some opposition politicians.

Ap Iorwerth said he would begin the process of speaking to other parties, and that the pro-independence party would put him forward to be first minister.

The Senedd will need to confirm who will lead the Welsh government in a vote, which could happen as early as Tuesday.

The dramatic day of results saw the current first minister, Eluned Morgan, lose her seat and resign as Welsh Labour leader.

Labour has won every general election since 1922 in Wales and, until this week, every Cardiff Bay election since the Senedd's predecessor the National Assembly was established in 1999.

It had been in charge of the Welsh government for 27 years. » | David Deans, Wales political reporter and Adrian Browne, Wales political reporter | Published: Thursday, May 7, 2026. Updated: Friday, May 8, 2026

The Guardian View on Welsh Language Learning: Cultural Shifts Can Deliver a Bright Future for Cymraeg

THE GUARDIAN — OPINION: As Plaid Cymru leads in polls ahead of Senedd elections in May, grassroots enthusiasm for one of its historic causes is growing

In Putting Wales First, a recently translated history of Plaid Cymru’s political ideas, Prof Richard Wyn Jones references a 1940s newspaper editorial satirising the party’s then preoccupations. Poking fun at its focus on language, and nostalgia for a rural society of small-scale landowners, the Western Mail waspishly summed up the vision as “three acres and a Welsh-speaking cow”.

It was a caricature at the time, of course. And it certainly bears no relation to the modern-day Plaid, which launched its Senedd campaign this week from a position of strength at the top of the polls. But Plaid’s historic commitment to safeguarding and promoting Welsh language and culture remains a defining cause. If – as currently seems highly likely – it goes on to lead the next Welsh government after 7 May, it has promised a raft of measures to embed the use of Cymraeg more deeply in everyday life. » | Editorial | Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Labour Party Pushed Into Third Place in Wales Special Election

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

Plaid Cymru Says Wales Can Be Cradle of a Global Green Revolution

THE GUARDIAN: At manifesto launch, leader Adam Price compares vision to that of John F Kennedy during space race

The Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price, struck a defiant note at the launch of his party’s manifesto, claiming that an independent Wales could become the cradle of a global green revolution.

Price announced a range of ambitious policies including three power-generating tidal lagoons, a barrage and an offshore wind farm as well as new rail lines and metro networks.

Comparing his dreams to those of John F Kennedy at the time of the space race, Price said the plans were audacious but achievable if the people of Wales pulled together and freed themselves from the control of the Westminster government. » | Steven Morris | Friday, November 22, 2019

Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and Greens Launch Pro-remain Electoral Pact

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: parties will step aside for each other in 60 seats to give single pro-remain candidate a free run

The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens have finalised a plan to step aside for each other in 60 seats across England and Wales in the general election. The alliance is intended to give a free run to one pro-remain party in each constituency.

The agreement, which does not include Labour, covers 49 seats in England and 11 in Wales. It was made under the banner of a cross-party group called Unite to Remain, which has spent several months trying to broker the plan.

A so-called progressive alliance plan, also including Labour, was attempted before the 2017 election but arrangements were only made for a handful of seats, in part because of the difficulty of getting local parties to agree. » | Peter Walker and Heather Stewart | Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Could a No-deal Brexit Push Wales towards Independence?

Boris Johnson may have given himself a new title of Minister for the Union, but how United is the Kingdom?

In Wales, where he was today, the Tories are out in front in the latest opinion poll. But many in the Welsh independence movement see his premiership as the perfect gift for their campaign.

A no-deal Brexit puts new pressures on Scotland and Northern Ireland, could it change the game in Wales too? Just this weekend thousands gathered to march for independence, so how indy-curious is Wales?

Argentina Turns to Wales for Help with Falkland Islands
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Argentina has held talks with Welsh nationalists about trying to win support among British MPs for the country's bid to win sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Diplomats from the Argentinian embassy in London invited senior representatives from Plaid Cymru for talks in the past six months.

Elfyn Llwyd MP, the Westminster leader of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, met two senior Argentinian diplomats for coffee.

Mr Llwyd confirmed the meeting had taken place, but he said he firmly rebuffed the approach to join Argentina’s campaign.

He told The Daily Telegraph that he had “no interest” in helping the South American country with its battle to win support for its claim to the islands.

He said: "I expressed no interest in getting involved in this fraught matter. They were trying to get me to introduce them to sympathetic MPs." Read on and comment » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Wednesday, June 20, 2012