Is Labour finding it difficult to get candidates for the 2026 Senedd election?
Martin Shipton
Members of Welsh Labour have been sent a reminder urging them to apply to be Senedd candidates, leading to speculation that the party may be struggling to put together a credible team for next May’s election.
Instead of the current 60 Senedd Members, the number of MSs will rise to 96. All will be elected via the controversial “closed list” system of proportional representation, under which people will vote solely for a party rather than for individual candidates, and parties will decide in which order their candidates will be elected.
Six MSs will be returned from each of 16 “super constituencies”.
Welsh Labour has decided that all incumbent Senedd Members who wish to stand for re-election will be given reserved slots at the top of the closed lists in the new super-constituencies. Although 13 current Labour MSs have decided not to seek re-election, this has narrowed down the number of winnable seats available to the party, especially at a time when it has not been doing well in the polls.
The deadline to apply to be a candidate for next year’s election is Sunday August 3.
Letter
Members of the Labour Party have now received a letter which states:“Our candidates will play a vital role in helping Welsh Labour win.
“We are excited for a new generation of political talent combining with decades of political experience in the Senedd to be our new face of Welsh Labour. Could you be one of them?
“If you’re thinking of standing, now is the time to fill out your application and put your name forward. From there, a member of the Welsh Labour team will be in touch regarding next steps. Kind regards, Welsh Labour.”
A party member who received the letter by email told Nation.Cymru: “This makes you wonder whether they can get candidates. Who in their right mind wants to be 4,5 or 6 on the list ? Number 3 and in some constituencies 2 might struggle. And they will expect you to be canvassing every weekend until May.
“It’s all strange. 2026 was always going to be difficult for Labour. It will be the first election under a Westminster Labour government since 2007. And they didn’t do well in 2007.
“People forget that after 2019 there was talk of Labour doing very badly in 2021 Drakeford was seen as hopeless. Then he was saved by Covid and Johnson. Even then 2021 wasn’t brilliant.
“Labour has always relied on the core of traditional seats in post-industrial Wales. They might have now thrown that away, and for what? OK Starmer has made it worse. But anyone with a brain would not have got into this position.
‘Coalition’
They added: “Putting change in terms of the way the Senedd is elected in the manifesto for 2026 for implementation in 2030 might have been sensible.You have to wonder what Drakeford’s thought processes are. And the prospect of a coalition after next May’s election between Plaid and Labour makes it worse. We are heading for dangerous economic times and the only winners would be Reform and Corbyn.
“Voters are not that interested in devolution. Most haven’t got a clue about Eluned Morgan or who their MS is. And you give them the ideal electoral system if they are pissed off and want to punish the incumbent. It’s totally bonkers but typical of a Welsh Labour party that shuns debate and isolates those who think outside the box.”
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The tag team of our FM and Jo stevens seem to have ruined labour.
I’m getting a little tired of the argument that the purpose of a voting system is to produce a desired political result. The purpose of a voting system is to deliver a Senedd which accurately reflects the political preferences of the Welsh electorate, who are the sovereign body in our constitution. It is then for the politicians to put together a government to carry out the promises laid out in their manifestos.
UK Labour knows Welsh Labour are in big trouble because of their pernicious policies, be it their shambolic winter fuel allowance and benefit cuts fiasco and warmonger Keir Starmer flip-flopping. What about their ‘Welsh Not’ when it comes to HS2 & Cambridge to Oxford rail infrastructure consequential. The Port talbot Tata Anti-Welsh debacle where British Steel Scunthorpe was nationalised and English workers prioritised where 2,800 Welsh steel workers and thousands more were dumped on the employment scrapheap and rewarded with two fingers and Universal Credit. Labour are so arrogant. They think that they own Wales. Stick a red rosette on… Read more »
I certainly think they are. There has been increasing disengagement for 25 years which massively accelerated under Corbyn, who along with Momentum were one of the most things to emerge from the Labour party. I’ll say engagement at local party level is 1/3-1/2 of what it was 30 years ago. Many of those are at the elder end of the age scale, to be polite. There are so many reasons why The UK’s political environment now is highly adversarial, performative and personal. Just look at some the articles and comments on this site, and on the other side of the political… Read more »
Nah, it’s just a subtle way of reminding the array of intellectual giants that populate the Senydd that they will need to sign the very important forms their mums have filled in for them…
The most prescient comment in this article is that “voters are not that interested in devolution”. It’s unfortunately very true. The Senedd as an institution is being eroded by the mediocrity of those inhabiting it (on all sides) and that isn’t going to change next year. The new voting system has contributed to this malaise along with many other factors; but the institution could be on borrowed time if it can’t make more impact on the every day lives of people. It’s no good saying things are just as bad or worse at Westminster. It’s up to the Senedd and… Read more »