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Welsh Labour
Welsh Labour (Welsh: Llafur Cymru), formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales (Welsh: Y Blaid Lafur yng Nghymru), is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in the modern politics of Wales. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every United Kingdom general election since 1922, every National Assembly (now Senedd) election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in the period 1979–2004 and in 2014. Welsh Labour holds 27 of the 32 Welsh seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd, and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities.
It has longest winning streak of any political party in the world and has been described as "by some distance the democratic world's most successful election-winning machine".
By the end of the 19th century, most of Wales' adult male population were able to vote. They predominantly supported the Liberal Party partially due to the influence of the Nonconformist religious movement on Welsh society as well as the party's association with various other radical causes, including improving the welfare of the working classes.
In 1893, the Independent Labour party was founded; it established branches in Wales, but did not initially gain mass appeal. In 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was founded by socialist societies and trade unions, the organisation from which the Labour Party would evolve. Keir Hardie, the first leader of the Independent Labour Party, was elected as member for Merthyr Tydfil in 1900. When the National Union of Mineworkers affiliated to the party in 1908, their four sponsored Welsh MPs became Labour MPs. Over the next few years, there was a steady rise in the number of Labour councillors and MPs in Wales. Particularly after the First World War, an expanded electorate and the damage the conflict caused to the Liberals reputation contributed to a major shift in support towards Labour in industrial areas. In the 1922 general election, Labour won half the Welsh parliamentary seats.
After 1922, Labour maintained consistent electoral dominance in Wales, winning between 40% and 45% at general elections for the rest of the interwar period. In 1931, when the Labour party collapsed to just 52 seats, the 16 seats it won in the southern Welsh valleys constituted its largest regional stronghold anywhere in Britain. After difficult years in the 1920s and '30s, following World War II there was keen desire in Wales like elsewhere in the UK to avoid a return to the conditions of the interwar era, and the Labour victory at the 1945 general election was strongly endorsed by the Welsh electorate.
In 1947, an all Wales unit was formed within the Labour Party for the first time with the merger of South Wales Regional Council of Labour and the constituency parties of north and mid Wales. This change was based on the Labour Party's support for central planning in the Welsh economy and was not at that stage any kind of endorsement of the idea of devolution.
Labour expanded its dominance of Welsh politics in the early 1950s, extending its influence in rural and Welsh speaking areas beyond its traditional industrial heartlands. Though Labour went into opposition after 1951, the Labour Party in Wales polled over 50 per cent of the popular vote at each general election, winning seemingly impregnable majorities in the valleys of south Wales. Aneurin Bevan, for example, was routinely returned for Ebbw Vale with 80 per cent of the vote. The pattern was similar in some 15 other seats in the region. Through its actions in local government and proposals for central government the Labour Party in Wales was perceived to be a modernising party committed to investing in infrastructure and serious about providing jobs and improving public services.
In the 1964 general election, the Labour Party in Wales polled some 58 per cent of the Welsh vote and won 28 seats. The Wilson government gave the Labour Party in Wales the chance to enact its promise (following the Conservative government's appointment of a Minister of Welsh Affairs in the mid-1950s) to create the post of Secretary of State for Wales and a Welsh Office. At the 1966 United Kingdom general election, Labour's support in Wales reached a peak, winning 61% of the vote and all but four of Wales's 36 parliamentary constituencies.
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Welsh Labour AI simulator
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Welsh Labour
Welsh Labour (Welsh: Llafur Cymru), formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales (Welsh: Y Blaid Lafur yng Nghymru), is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in the modern politics of Wales. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every United Kingdom general election since 1922, every National Assembly (now Senedd) election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in the period 1979–2004 and in 2014. Welsh Labour holds 27 of the 32 Welsh seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd, and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities.
It has longest winning streak of any political party in the world and has been described as "by some distance the democratic world's most successful election-winning machine".
By the end of the 19th century, most of Wales' adult male population were able to vote. They predominantly supported the Liberal Party partially due to the influence of the Nonconformist religious movement on Welsh society as well as the party's association with various other radical causes, including improving the welfare of the working classes.
In 1893, the Independent Labour party was founded; it established branches in Wales, but did not initially gain mass appeal. In 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was founded by socialist societies and trade unions, the organisation from which the Labour Party would evolve. Keir Hardie, the first leader of the Independent Labour Party, was elected as member for Merthyr Tydfil in 1900. When the National Union of Mineworkers affiliated to the party in 1908, their four sponsored Welsh MPs became Labour MPs. Over the next few years, there was a steady rise in the number of Labour councillors and MPs in Wales. Particularly after the First World War, an expanded electorate and the damage the conflict caused to the Liberals reputation contributed to a major shift in support towards Labour in industrial areas. In the 1922 general election, Labour won half the Welsh parliamentary seats.
After 1922, Labour maintained consistent electoral dominance in Wales, winning between 40% and 45% at general elections for the rest of the interwar period. In 1931, when the Labour party collapsed to just 52 seats, the 16 seats it won in the southern Welsh valleys constituted its largest regional stronghold anywhere in Britain. After difficult years in the 1920s and '30s, following World War II there was keen desire in Wales like elsewhere in the UK to avoid a return to the conditions of the interwar era, and the Labour victory at the 1945 general election was strongly endorsed by the Welsh electorate.
In 1947, an all Wales unit was formed within the Labour Party for the first time with the merger of South Wales Regional Council of Labour and the constituency parties of north and mid Wales. This change was based on the Labour Party's support for central planning in the Welsh economy and was not at that stage any kind of endorsement of the idea of devolution.
Labour expanded its dominance of Welsh politics in the early 1950s, extending its influence in rural and Welsh speaking areas beyond its traditional industrial heartlands. Though Labour went into opposition after 1951, the Labour Party in Wales polled over 50 per cent of the popular vote at each general election, winning seemingly impregnable majorities in the valleys of south Wales. Aneurin Bevan, for example, was routinely returned for Ebbw Vale with 80 per cent of the vote. The pattern was similar in some 15 other seats in the region. Through its actions in local government and proposals for central government the Labour Party in Wales was perceived to be a modernising party committed to investing in infrastructure and serious about providing jobs and improving public services.
In the 1964 general election, the Labour Party in Wales polled some 58 per cent of the Welsh vote and won 28 seats. The Wilson government gave the Labour Party in Wales the chance to enact its promise (following the Conservative government's appointment of a Minister of Welsh Affairs in the mid-1950s) to create the post of Secretary of State for Wales and a Welsh Office. At the 1966 United Kingdom general election, Labour's support in Wales reached a peak, winning 61% of the vote and all but four of Wales's 36 parliamentary constituencies.