Plaid cling to Arfon by skin of teeth
PLAID Cymru’s Hywel Williams held on to his Arfon constituency by the seat of his pants.
Arfon was formed in 2010 as a successor to the constituency of Caernarfon and includes the city of Bangor and Caernarfon. It looked like a marginal that Plaid Cymru might struggle to hold on to.
But sitting MP Hywel Williams won the seat comfortably with a majority of 1,455, subsequently building on that result and at the 20155 General Election increased his majority to 3,668.68.
Plaid had high hopes of winning thee seat again but those hopes were almost dashed after Labour voters – many of them young people – were attracted to turn up to vote by the lure of Jeremy Corbyn rather than candidate Mary Gwen Griffiths Clarke.
With Hywel Williams getting 11,519 votes this time compared to 11,790 last time the gap between himm and Mary Clarke was only 92 votes. Rumours that it would be “a close one”e” between the two parties surfaced earlyly on in the hall at Canolfan Hamdden Arfon and Labour asked for two recounts.
In the end a very relieved Mr Williams won through to the delight of his supporters; leaving Miss Clarke to reflect on what could have been.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Williams said: “I would like to thank most of all the people of Arfon who have voted solidly once again for Plaid Cymru. We have held on to our vote.” He said: “We are facing a very difficult period ahead regarding the governing of Wales and the governing of Great Britain ahead of the Brexit talks which start in just 10 days.” Wrexham held by Labour’s Ian Lucas - with increased majority of one vote Mr Williams said he hoped Plaid Cymru would have a say in those talks and would defend Wales’ interestsi including access to the market.
Afterwards he said it had been “a veryver tight finish” He said he was “very proud of theth people of Arfon” and said it was “essentially the Corbyn swing”w and “Presidential campaign”ca which had an effect. Although Labour had gained 3,0003,0 votes on the last election, “it wasn’twas from us”, he said, pointing towardstowa the influence of the “Corbyn“Corby v May mania”. Mr WilliamsWil now hoped that with a minority or h hung Parliament that Plaid Cymru could have the leverage to bring more powers from Europe and Brussels to North Wales.” Mary Griffiths Clarke said she hadn’t considered it would be such a close contest because she had been concentrating her efforts on reaching out to people and on getting people engaged in politics.