Labour battles for survival in county of past epic battles

Martin Shipton

Labour has launched its Senedd election campaign in a county which in the past has seen epic battles between the party’s candidates and their Plaid Cymru rivals.

The Carmarthen constituency saw Gwynfor Evans become Plaid’s first MP in a by-election following the death of Labour’s Lady Megan Lloyd George.

Subsequently the seat swung back and forth between Labour and Plaid.

While Llanelli stuck with Labour in Westminster elections, the Senedd seat was won on two occasions by Plaid’s Helen Mary Jones, although in 2011 it reverted to Labour.

Now the two Westminster seats of Caerfyrddin and Llanelli have been combined to form the super-constituency of Sir Gaerfyrddin.

But unlike the battles of the past, polls suggest that Labour will struggle to win any of the county’s six seats at May’s election, even though all will be allocated on the basis of proportional representation.

The most recent poll projection showed Plaid Cymru winning four seats, with the remaining two going to Reform UK.

Nevertheless Steve Donoghue, the chair of Labour’s constituency party in Llanelli, sought to project an upbeat rallying cry at the local campaign launch by stating that Labour can “stop the politics of division in its tracks”.

He called on councillors, activists and supporters, to unite and fight with purpose in what he said was one of the most important elections in a generation.

Urging all party members to support the campaign candidates, Mr Donoghue said: “There is no room for silos, no space for division, and no time for complacency. We must knock doors together. We must listen together. And we must speak with one united Labour voice.

“Because while we are building hope, others are trying to sell fear.”

‘Anger’

He said the party could not ignore the growing threat posed by Reform:

“They thrive on anger without answers, blame without responsibility, and slogans without solutions,” he said.

‘”They seek to divide communities – urban from rural, Welsh-speaking from non-Welsh-speaking, neighbour from neighbour – and they offer nothing that would improve the lives of people in Carmarthenshire.

He said Reform was not a party for working people: “They do not stand for better public services, workers’ rights, or investment in our communities.

‘They are not on the side of our NHS staff, our teachers, our farmers, or our young people trying to build a future here in Wales.”

He said Labour in Wales should be proud of what it has achieved and ambitious about what it can still do: “We believe in a Wales where public services are properly funded and publicly owned.

“A Wales where young people can afford to stay and build a life.

“A Wales where rural communities are supported, not forgotten.

“A Wales where the Welsh language thrives.

“And a Wales where dignity at work and dignity in retirement are non-negotiable.”

Determination

Labour had to win to stand up for the people who rely on the party to stand up for them and work hard with discipline and determination, he argued.

“If we stand together, if we campaign with confidence, and if we never forget who we are here to serve, then we can return strong representation to the Senedd – and we can stop the politics of division in its tracks,” he said.

Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said there was an “absolute politics of bile, and hatred and abhorrence” coming from Reform.

He admitted Plaid was on an upswing but claimed a motion about to go to the Senedd made it look like “everything is going to hell in a handcart”.

Labour knew the scale of the battle and was “up for the massive challenge,” said Mr Irranca-Davies.

He cited the party’s first election pledge – to introduce a £2 maximum single bus fare throughout Wales, as the “most generous bus transport offer in the whole of the UK”.

After 14 years of Tory austerity, bus services had been “decimated”, he claimed.

But a new Welsh bus bill would put control back to local people and Labour would introduce at least 100 new bus routes, devised with local communities.

“Compelling offers” would also be brought forward on health,he promised, claiming that the party could be trusted to bring waiting lists down.

Jobs

Mr Iranca-Davies added that the UK and Welsh Labour governments would invest in skills, jobs, and coal tips remediation and would transform Wales, offering a better future than with Reform and Plaid Cymru.

Ammanford’s deputy mayor Calum Higgins, Labour’s leading candidate in Sir Gaerfyrddin, said that now, after 14 years of a “nasty” Tory Westminster government which had slashed public services, funding taps were starting to be turned on by Labour in Westminster working with Labour in Cardiff Bay.