The Labour Party has won the 2024 General Election with a significant majority.
In Wales, the 32 seats have been won by:
Labour – 27
Plaid Cymru – 4
Liberal Democrats – 1
Below is how Wales looks after the results of the election followed by an analysis of the General Election by Camlas.
A new dawn has broken. After 14 years of Conservative led government, the Labour party have won. They will now have a majority of over 150 to implement the change they promised in their manifesto.
This result is significant for many reasons, but most notably it is momentous because the swing required for Labour to achieve victory is unprecedented. After the 2019 general election, much was made of the fact Labour would require a swing of 12% to achieve a majority of 1. Something which even the most positive of Labour minded people, thought impossible in the cold winter of 2019.
This quote from Harold Wilson in 1964 seems apt, if not quite mathematically identical to the Conservative majority overcome.
“Let us not understate the achievement in having reversed in one campaign an adverse trend that had been at work with increasing force over four previous elections, and in having turned the Conservative majority of over 100 seats into an overall Labour majority.”
There have been some disappointments for Labour in Wales however, where early campaign target seats such as Caerfyrddin and Ynys Mon have elected Plaid Cymru MPs, and outside target seat of Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe has seen the election of a Liberal Democrat MP in Wales (excluding by-elections) for the first time since 2015. It seems as though the narrative that developed in the last few weeks of the campaign, i.e. that Labour was going to win in a landslide, so you can vote for who you want to win, cut through in a number of Welsh seats.
One of the major stories of the election in Wales, was the strength of the Reform vote. They have, in percentage terms: come second, finished second in a number of seats; ran Labour close in Llanelli; and cost the Conservatives several seats in Wales. While they have not won any seats in Wales tonight, they have established themselves in a prominent position for the Senedd election in 2026.
There were many so-called “Portillo” moments across the course of the night, but in the Welsh Context, there were some notable Conservative Party losses, including the Conservative Chief Whip, Simon Hart and Secretary of State for Wales, David T.C. Davies.