LABOUUR & PLAID TAKE THE SEATS
ALBERT OWEN RETURNED FOR ANOTHER TERM AS MP AS TORIES TAKE SECOND FROM PLAID
IT WAS a fantastic night for Labour as Albert Owen secured his largest ever majority in a seat heavily targeted by Plaid Cymru.
Mr Owen polled over 15,000 votes on Ynys Môn, with the Conservatives pushing Plaid into a disappointing third place despite the presence of a candidate who’d previously held the Parliamentary seat for 14 years.
Ieuan Wyn Jones, also a former Plaid leader, was pipped to second by Conservative Tomos Dafydd Davies.
Despite losing only 3.1% of its 2015 vote, a senior party figure blamed the ‘squeeze’ that’s hurt smaller parties across the country.
Mr Owen has held the island seat since 2001, but his majority of 5,259 gives him a vastly stronger mandate than the 229 votes he won by in 2015.
Following his win, the 57 year-old former merchant seaman, said: “We fought a hard working and positive campaign, which came under unique circumstances due to the short notice of the snap election.
“But I’d like to thank my excellent team who have been with me across the island, taking the message to the people of Ynys Môn.
“One of the big features we saw is the thousands of young people who registered and voted, and I look forward to working with them. They have been an inspiration,
“The Corbyn factor played a part, but we also had a good manifesto and the partnership between Welsh and national Labour, appealed to voters.”
He added: “The smaller parties seemed to get caught in the headlights, they tried to manouver themselves to space that wasn’t really there, and they need to learn from that.”
Ieuan Wyn Jones, meanwhile, congratulated Mr Owen on his “clear victory”, and wished him well as he represents the island for another term.
He added: “Thanking my agent, John Wyn Jones, who has not been in the best of health, I would also like to thank my whole team and everyone who voted for me,
“In Parliament, there will be major issues to tackle, and we have no idea what the next Government will look like.”
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the island’s Plaid Cymru AM, largely blamed the defeat on the personality-dominated nature of the national campaign.
“Up until around two weeks ago, I was confident that Ieuan was in front,” he said.
“But then we saw the Corbyn and May factor start to dominate the agenda, which cost us to be honest.
“In hindsight, there is very little I would change about our campaign.
“We’re disappointed of course and although our vote hardly fell, national factors meant that the mountain was too high for us to climb this time.”