Ken Skates confirmed as Welsh Labour leader after party’s historic election loss
Rod Minchin, Press Association
Ken Skates has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour after the party’s historic Senedd election defeat.
Mr Skates, a former journalist for the Wrexham Leader newspaper and BBC Wales, had been interim leader since the resignation of Eluned Morgan in May after the election.
Labour had led Wales since the Senedd was established as the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, and was the largest party in the country for more than a century.
Ms Morgan quit as Welsh Labour leader after losing her seat in the election.
Her defeat – a “Portillo moment” in the Welsh election, akin to the shock when Conservative former minister Michael Portillo lost his Westminster constituency in 1997 – made her the first serving leader of a government to lose her seat in British electoral history.
Nominations opened for a permanent replacement last week and Mr Skates was confirmed as leader after receiving the unanimous backing of the nine-strong Labour Senedd group.
“I am deeply honoured to have the unanimous backing of my colleagues in the Senedd in seeking the leadership of Welsh Labour,” he said.
“I joined the party as a 14-year-old, and my belief still stands that no child’s future should be determined by their background.
“That no young person should be judged on anything other than the efforts they make and the decency they show to others.
“The Labour movement for me is a movement for fairness, justice, security and liberty.
“It is a movement that seeks to empower people and communities, to fight against injustice, intolerance, nepotism and cruelty.”
Mr Skates, 50, who was first elected in 2011, held several Welsh Government roles including transport secretary and economy and infrastructure secretary.
He was re-elected to the Senedd for the new constituency of Fflint Wrecsam in May, winning the sixth and final seat.
Carolyn Harris MP, deputy leader of Welsh Labour, said: “I offer my warm congratulations to Ken.
“He has my full backing as he undertakes the big task ahead of him – listening, learning, rebuilding and doing that crucial job of holding Plaid Cymru and Reform UK to account in the Senedd.
“I have no doubt he has the energy, thoughtfulness and optimism to take us forward and I look forward to working alongside him.”
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I guess thats the final nail in the coffin then- right wing brit nat establishment guy
Blocking £145m for the NHS isn’t a great start.
I hope Plaid are shouting this from the rooftops. They should call out Labour’s intransigence and threaten to call for another election.
Well I won’t be voting for him: his loyalties are clearly to the English nationalist Labour party. I fully expect him to kowtow to Andy Burnham (whose own commitment to devolution will consist of bypassing the devolved administrations in revenge for us having the audacity to not vote Labour).
His reasons for joining Labour describe Plaid’s philosophy (apart from respect for our nation!) Not a good start then, Ken bach, that you play politics with a budget that seeks to give more to NHS, child poverty, pre-school and ALN kids out of an unfairly inadequate budget set by yourcWestminster masters. Be a man and do the best you can for Wales not for yourself.
Ken Skates: the same face of the same old same.🥱 #LabourFailsWales 🇬🇧#WelshNot 🏴⛔
Under his leadership labour in the Senedd have twice in the last week joined forces with Reform to defeat the plaid Welsh govt – not a very distinguished start to skates tenure. Indeed labour supporters in Wales will be rightly appalled to see their party in the Senedd lining up with the proto fascists of Reform.