Plaid beats challenge from Reform to win byelection
Plaid candidate Lindsay Whittle has been announced as the byelection winner.
White received 15,961 votes, it was announced at the counting centre, while Reform’s Llyr Powell received 12,113.
Whittle has spoken – we’ll bring you his comments in a moment.
“It’s 14th time lucky for Lindsay Whittle,” the audience at the counting centre is told of the candidate, who has been a local councillor for half a century.
Key events
Steven Morris
The most senior Labour figure at the count, Huw Irranca-Davies – the deputy first minister of Wales – accepted the party would have to think deeply about the result but struck a defiant tone.
He said:
Some people are now writing us off. I have to paraphrase Mark Twain: rumours about death are greatly exaggerated. We are a formidable force and there are deep roots of Labour in these communities.
Going forward, what we need to do is actually be very bold, very brave and on the front foot and actually deal with the doom-mongers that only want to sow the politics of discord and discontent and get on the front foot again. Politics is always won by hope and aspiration and being on the side of people and saying you can have a better future.
Irranca-Davies also said:
There have been occasions before where Wales has lost seats that are deep red and on those occasions we’ve come back and we’ve bounced back. And the reason we’ve bounced back is we’ve come back having listened and come back with a compelling vision for people that is better than the doom and discord of people like Reform.
Reform is utter doom, utter misery, utter everybody else’s fault. And what we need to say to people is actually there is a different type of politics here. You’ve seen this not just within the UK over decades but internationally, the best leaders are the ones that can lift people’s heads up and say we can be better so much better than this. So it’s all to play for.
I have no difficulty being written off as my party as the underdog in this. Underdogs could bite back.
Steven Morris
The Plaid leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said the result meant his party was in the driving seat to take control of the Welsh government at next year’s Senedd elections.
He said:
We had a very clear message that we wanted to get across to people – the strength of our candidate, our commitment to this area where Plaid Cymru has roots going back so so many years and the fact that we as a party are in a place where we are setting sights on leading government from next year.
Plus also of course there was the element of wanting to stop Reform and showing that we could stop Reform here in Wales.
Ap Iorwerth said the party would now set its sights on winning power.
There is deep, deep disillusionment with Labour, both on a UK level and at a Welsh government level, and the people are looking for new leadership. A Plaid Cymru win here tonight is the clearest evidence yet of who is in the driving seat to lead government for next year. I want people to see Plaid Cymru as being that positive alternative.
We’ve known throughout this campaign that the results here would have a real bearing on how people would consider their options ahead of next May. This is about the future of Wales, about us, as a Plaid Cymru team, working with the people of Wales to change Wales forever.
Ap Iorwerth said Plaid had to show voters there was an alternative to Reform. “
What we are trying to do is persuade them that there’s a positive alternative. We need parties with ideas, with the energy, with the drive, and a focus on the future of Wales. And I don’t think Reform have shown in anything that they’ve done that they are particularly interested in Wales. It’s all about getting Nigel Farage to Downing Street.
Steven Morris
The losing Reform candidate, Llŷr Powell, made no speech from the stage after the result was announced. Speaking to reporters, he said he was excited at what the party had built in Wales.
We decimated Labour. It’s a massive gain for us here.
Powell rejected the idea the result was a blow for Nigel Farage and said the party would continue to get more voters registered and would do well at next year’s full Senedd elections.
Steven Morris
The losing Labour candidate, Richard Tunnicliffe, said his party had run a positive campaign and had knocked on 75,000 doors.
He said Labour would campaign hard ahead of next year’s full Senedd elections.
Steven Morris
In his acceptance speech, the winning Plaid candidate, Lindsay Whittle, joked he was not used to speaking first.
He asked people to remember the late Hefin David, whose sudden death led to the byelection. “He will be a hard act to follow. I will never fill his shoes but I promise I will walk the same path that he did.
“I hope this will be an exciting time for politics in Wales. I’ve been heartened by the number of young people who have been involved in this campaign.
Whittle also said:
Listen Cardiff and listen Westminster. This is Caerphilly. And we are telling you we want a better deal. Wales is at the dawn of a new leadership, a new beginning.
How each candidate polled
The vote numbers for the eight candidates in the byelection have been reported as:
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Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle – 15,961
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Reform UK’s Llyr Powell – 12,113
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Labour’s Richard Tunnicliffe – 3,713
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Conservatives’ Gareth Potter – 690
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Greens’ Gareth Hughes – 516
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Liberal Democrats’ Steve Aicheler – 497
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Gwlad’s Anthony Cook – 117
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Ukip’s Roger Quilliam – 79
Whittle to Westminster: ‘Don’t take us for granted’
Lindsay Whittle has said the message to Westminster from his byelection win is:
Don’t take us for granted. That’s what’s happened in the past.
More on this shortly.
Plaid beats challenge from Reform to win byelection
Plaid candidate Lindsay Whittle has been announced as the byelection winner.
White received 15,961 votes, it was announced at the counting centre, while Reform’s Llyr Powell received 12,113.
Whittle has spoken – we’ll bring you his comments in a moment.
“It’s 14th time lucky for Lindsay Whittle,” the audience at the counting centre is told of the candidate, who has been a local councillor for half a century.
The byelection candidates are being summoned to the stage at the Caerphilly leisure centre – a result could be immindent.
Steven Morris
Reform UK candidate Llŷr Powell denied the campaign had been all about immigration.
He said: “My campaign has been about government policies and where best to put money into Caerphilly.”
Powell said Reform had learnt a lot about campaigning, which would be put to good use at next year’s full Senedd elections.
When you look at where we started, we had a blank slate. We had to go out there and find a lot of voters. We found a lot of support. It’s been a great campaign. The collapse of the Labour vote is there for everyone to see. It’s been a betrayal what Labour has done around here.
Going into next year we’re in a really good place. A big part of what we were trying to do here is to master our campaigning. We’ve trained so many people up on our systems. We’re now a grassroots campaigning party.
There’s been some tough elements. The front door of my home was kicked in. Glue was put in the campaign office locks. It’s sad our democratic process has come under attack. My activists spoke to thousands of people despite the smears, fears and attacks.
Here are some of the latest images coming in during the vote count amid suggestions the Caerphilly result will be in within an hour and perhaps even half that.
Steven Morris
The Plaid leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has arrived at the count, a sign that his party has done well.
We’re told Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won’t be here.
Steven Morris
The Plaid candidate, Lindsay Whittle, said it had been an exciting campaign for him and his party.
I’ve had young people having selfies with me. One youngster jumped out of a car and told me I was his hero. That made me feel six-foot tall.
Whittle was also keen to pay tribute to Hefin David, whose sudden death in the summer led to the byelection.
Whittle knew David well and remembers a visit to Caerphilly’s twin town in Germany. It was cold and David needed to buy a new coat.
“I hate shopping but I went with him,” Whittle said.
Eventually they found a coat together. It led Whittle to nickname him “The man from C&A” after the fashion brand.
“He was a good man,” Whittle said.
Reform UK candidate Llyr Powell says he has been subjected to “attacks” on his property and office during the byelection campaign.
“It’s quite sad that our democratic process has come under attack from a militant group out there,” Powell told the BBC at the Caerphilly counting centre, adding that he was “proud” of the campaign he and his team had run.
He was also asked about an instance at the byelection debate when an audience member said Reform’s “rhetoric” had made her family feel “unwelcome” in the town.
Powell told the broadcaster he was “surprised” by the remark because his campaign “has been about government policies and where best to put money”.
Steven Morris
The UK-wide significance of the election is shown in the number of journalists at the count in a leisure centre in Caerphilly – 83 were accredited.
“Usually we have the local BBC and the Caerphilly Observer,” said one party worker.
Voter turnout tops 50%
The Caerphilly byelection turnout was 50.43%, according to reports, with a total of 33,736 constituency ballot papers being included in the count.
The turnout figure is being described as a historic high for a Senedd byelection and for a Welsh devolved byelection.
PA Media says the 50.43% turnout contrasts with the figure for the 2018 Alyn and Deeside byelection at just 29.1%.
That was the last Senedd byelection before the death of Labour MS Hefin David triggered the poll in Caerphilly.
Overall turnout, excluding spoilt or disallowed ballot papers, in the 2021 Senedd elections was 46.6%.
There has never been a national turnout higher than 50%.
Speaking at the Caerphilly byelection count, Delyth Jewell, deputy leader of Plaid Cymru, said she felt “excited and frightened”.
I still feel so excited about the campaign that we ran, I think it’s been a really energetic campaign.
I feel excited and frightened at the same time, and I wish there were a word for those things together, because there are two very starkly different scenarios ahead of us.
One of them is going to unfold in the next few hours, either we will see Plaid Cymru emerging as the party that’s won this byelection or Reform, and it’s been obvious the whole time it was one or the other.
PA Media also quoted Jewell as saying:
No matter what way this goes, it’s going to be clear to voters in Wales that the only progressive party for the future of Wales is Plaid Cymru. We are also the only party that will be able to beat Reform.
The momentum is with us, so no matter what happens in this byelection tonight, I think people’s minds will be focused.
Labour has long held the Caerphilly Senedd and Westminster constituencies but, unless opinion polling is wide of the mark, the party is likely to be beaten into third this week with either Plaid or Reform UK seizing the Welsh parliament seat.
As Steven Morris has reported, Plaid appeared to be picking up Labour votes disenchanted with the party’s performance both in Cardiff and Westminster while Reform hoovered up traditional Conservative voters and those impressed by its promises to end what it calls the “mass immigration agenda” of the other two parties.
The Plaid Cymru candidate, Lindsay Whittle, who has been a local councillor for half a century, wants to win for two reasons – to further the cause of his beloved Plaid and to keep out Reform.
“Labour is facing annihilation,” he said. “The Labour tree has finally died. The roots have gone and it’s dead.”
If Labour loses in Caerphilly it will be a huge blow for the party that has dominated politics in Wales for a century. It faces an even bigger challenge next year when full Senedd elections take place.
If it loses control of the Welsh government – and Reform does well – it will be seen as a signal of political transformation in the UK.
Labour, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK braced for results of Caerphilly byelection
Hello and welcome to our live coverage as political leaders brace for the results of a byelection in Caerphilly that could mark a historic shift in Welsh politics.
Labour has run the Senedd (Welsh parliament) since the devolved administration was established in 1999, and Caerphilly has been one of its strongholds. But opposition parties hoping to form the next Welsh government have run fierce campaigns in the south Wales constituency.
In early polling before the vote, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK were forecast to be the two biggest parties in Wales next year. The result in Caerphilly could be a bellwether for the Senedd election in May and is likely to be treated as such by the victorious party.
The byelection also comes in the run-up to a vote on the next Welsh government budget, which has heaped even more pressure on the Labour campaign. When passing its budget in March, the government needed the help of an opposition member to get it through.
While Labour is the largest party in the Senedd, it does not have a majority, and the budget vote in January could be even more difficult if the party loses the Caerphilly seat.
Nigel Farage pledged to “throw everything” at the campaign in backing the Reform UK candidate, Llyr Powell. Plaid Cymru’s candidate, Lindsay Whittle, is a longstanding councillor in the Penyrheol ward and the leader of the group on Caerphilly council. The Labour candidate is Richard Tunnicliffe, a financial analyst and publisher.
The candidates fielded by other parties are Gareth Potter for the Conservatives, Gareth Hughes for the Greens, and Anthony Cook for Gwlad, a pro-independence party. Steve Aicheler is running for the Liberal Democrats and Roger Quilliam is the candidate for Ukip.
The byelection was called after the death of Hefin Wyn David, a Labour politician who was first elected in Caerphilly in 2016. There will be an inquest into his death in April.
