Welsh defeat devastates Labour
Monday, 8 June 2009 12:21 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Labour lost the popular vote in Wales for the first time since the first world war, taking just 20.3 per cent of the vote.
It was the Conservatives rather than the nationalist Plaid Cymru party who emerged on top. The Tories won with 21.2 per cent, 7,000 votes ahead of Labour.
PC were up 1.1 per cent to 18.5 per cent, while Ukip came in fourth place with 12.8 per cent. The Lib Dems were pushed into fifth with 10.7 per cent.
They missed out on an MEP as a result. Kay Swinburne for the Conservatives, Derek Vaughan for Labour, Jill Evans for PC and John Bufton for Ukip were elected to the European parliament.
Labour last failed to win the most votes of any party in Wales in 1918 - and it was the Liberals who took power then, not the Tories. Their share of the vote slumped by a third, shedding 12.2 per cent on their 2004 result.
Shadow Wales secretary Cheryl Gillan told the BBC she thought the Labour party in Wales had been taken for granted "for an awfully long time".
"I hope we can show the people of Wales we really have something to offer. I'm delighted with the result tonight," she added.
Of the other parties, the Greens narrowly beat the BNP into sixth place, taking 5.6 per cent to the BNP's 5.4 per cent.
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