The Conservative Party has faced a historic defeat in Wales, losing all of its seats in the House of Commons.
The UK Labour Party has won a majority of seats in Wales, claiming 27 out of 32 seats in the House of Commons. The pro-independence Plaid Cymru party won four seats, and the Liberal Democrats won one. The Conservative Party, which had held 14 seats since the 2019 election, lost all of them in this election.
Keir Starmer has become the new UK Prime Minister following a landslide victory over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives. Labour has secured at least 412 out of 650 seats in the British Parliament.
Sunak has announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, taking responsibility for the party’s defeat. He will remain in his position until a successor is chosen.
Welsh Tory leader Andrew Davies expressed his disappointment with the results, stating that he was “bloody angry”. In a post on X, Davies said that his party would rebuild and would work to regain the trust of lifelong Conservative voters.
“Let’s be frank: We’ve let a lot of people down,” he wrote.
Secretary of State for Wales David Davies was among the 14 Conservative MPs who lost their seats, making him the first Welsh secretary to lose his seat since the creation of the office in 1964. Labour’s Cardiff East MP Jo Stevens has been confirmed as the new secretary.
This is the first time the Conservatives have failed to elect any MPs in Wales since 2001, when Tony Blair’s Labour Party won its second consecutive general election. This mirrors the situation in the 1997 election, which brought Blair to power, resulting in a period with no Conservative MPs in Wales from 1997 to 2005.
The Tories still maintain 16 out of 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd, with Labour holding half and Plaid Cymru with 13.
The Conservative Party’s wipeout in Wales reflects the broader national picture. Sunak’s party is projected to win only 131 Commons seats, the lowest number in its history, while Labour is expected to secure 410 seats, giving them an overall majority of 176.
In Scotland, the pro-independence Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) experienced a significant loss, dropping from 47 seats to 10. This is the party’s worst result since 2010, largely attributed to Labour’s resurgence.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, described the outcome as “a black night for us all”, stating that Scottish independence is now a “hard sell.” However, he emphasized that the mandate for an independence referendum still exists “within the Scottish parliament itself.”