Big shock on election night
LABOUR’S Madeleine Moon, Bridgend’s MP for 14 years, told of her deep disappointment after the greatest election night shock in South Wales saw the Tories overcoming a loss by 4,000 votes at the last election to win comfortably.
THE combination of the Conservatives’ General Election surge and a grim night for Labour was reflected in Wales, where the Tories seized several seats from Labour last week.
The Tories more than doubled the number of seats won, from six at the last election to 14 now.
Six of the eight gains were the result of Labour losses including Bridgend, which now has its first Conservative MP since 1983, and Wrexham, which has switched to the Tories for the first time in history.
The Conservatives now have 14 of Wales’ 40 seats (up seven), Labour has 22 seats (down six) and Plaid Cymru four (no change), while the Lib Dems lost their only Welsh seat (Brecon and Radnorshire).
The results – with Labour’s 40.1% share of the Welsh vote down 8% on the last election – prompted searching questions about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Labour lost votes in every constituency in Wales, even the seats they won.
But the greatest shock in South Wales was Labour’s loss of Bridgend, with the Tories overcoming a loss by 4,000 votes at the last election to win comfortably with a majority of more than 1,000.
The turnout for the constituency was 66.89% with 42,341 votes being cast.
Labour’s Madeleine Moon, who had been the constituency’s MP for 14 years, told of her deep disappointment.
“This was not just somewhere that was my constituency, this is my home,” she said.
“It’s where I’ve served as a councillor and an MP for well over 30 years. This place really matters to me.
“It now has a Conservative MP and people will have to hold him to account for the austerity and the cuts that we are experiencing now and that with a harsh Brexit we are going to experience again in the future.
“But it has been an absolute delight working for and serving this community, but it’s come to an end so I’m going to go off and enjoy being a grandmother.”
She said it was up to new MP Jamie Wallis to prove that he could protect the constituency, saying he would find the transition to Westminster tough.
She said: “He’s got three years on a parish council – he will find Westminster a totally tough and different place to operate.
“What worries me for Bridgend is that while you learn the job you become whips fodder – you vote the way you are told because you don’t know any different, so he has to prove himself.
“People will be able to hold him to account because policies are going to come from the Conservative Party.”
She said, having seen the exit polls, the result had not come as a great shock. She lost to Dr Wallis by more than 1,000 votes, having previously had a majority of over 4,000 votes.
In his acceptance speech, Dr Wallis paid tribute to Mrs Moon and thanked her for what she had done over the past 14 years.
He said: “I will endeavour to deserve the votes that have been cast here today.”
Speaking after the announcement of his historic win, he said: “I’m delighted to have won – it’s been an amazing campaign, I can’t thank the volunteers and members enough, I’ve had a lot of support behind me.
“It was always about trying to win voters who had never voted Conservative before, that’s where the challenge was.
“I think we did very well reaching out to people we never had before.
“What I want to do for Bridgend now is to keep doing that. We need to keep focusing on winning around people that perhaps have historically voted Labour or for another party. We need to work hard for them.
“I want to be an active MP who campaigns on local issues and who spends as much time as possible in the con
stituency and I want to do my bit for Bridgend and Porthcawl and try to make it an even better place to live and work.”
Mr Wallis won the election with 18,193 votes, while Mrs Moon received 17,036.
In third place came the Liberal Democrat Jonathan Pratt with 2,368 and fourth was Leanne Lewis of Plaid Cymru with 2,013.
The Brexit Party’s Robert Morgan came fifth with 1,811 votes and Alex Harris from the Green Party came sixth with 815 votes.
Meanwhile, sitting Conservative Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns kept his seat as MP with an increased majority.
The former Welsh Secretary was forced to resign his cabinet post amid controversy over his role in the selection of his friend Ross England as the Assembly candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan.
However, he increased his majority over Labour’s Belinda LoveluckEdwards to 2,190 votes, a 1.21% swing from Labour to the Conservatives.
He promised in his victory speech that the Conservatives will deliver “strong government that will represent all people from all walks of life”, and thanked his family, his team and the electorate.
Ms Loveluck-Edwards said it had been a positive campaign but Labour had failed to reach out to voters.
She said it was “too early” to say if Jeremy Corbyn was to blame.
“I am disappointed. I’m not sure it’s what’s gone wrong with the Labour Party, it’s indicative of how divided we are and that stems from the Tory mantra that started three and a half years ago, about this is Brexit,” she said.
“We need to pause, reflect and assess why we did not reach out to the electorate. That’s who I feel we have let down.
“At this stage it would be difficult to say it is Corbyn’s fault.”
It’s a seat where the socalled “alliance pact” between Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and Greens was brought into play and the Green Party alone stood out of those remain parties.
Labour held on to the Ogmore constituency, with Chris Elmore retaining his seat in a comfortable win.
The turnout for Ogmore was 61.63% with 35,490 votes being cast.
Mr Elmore was reelected with 17,602 votes, half the vote, and with a majority of 7,805 votes – but just over 6,000 votes less than the majority he had at the 2017 election.
The Conservative candidate, Sadie Vidal, came second, receiving 9,797 votes.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Elmore said: “There is no greater privilege for me than to represent the place that I love and live.”
He added: “Clearly this has also been a challenging night for the Labour Party across the UK.
“We need to understand and listen to what voters are telling us, it’s clearly a lot more than just Brexit and we need to start to listen and reflect on that in the coming weeks and months ahead.”
Christine Roach from the Brexit Party came third with 2,991 votes, while Luke Fletcher of Plaid Cymru was fourth with 2,919 votes.
Anita Davies from the Liberal Democrats came fifth with 1,460 votes and Tom Muller of the Green Party was sixth, receiving 621 votes.
There was a jubilant response to the overall results from Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies, who hailed the fact the party now “has the joint largest number of Welsh Conservative MPs in Parliament”, equalling its previous record.
He added: “I’m delighted that the people of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom have delivered a majority for our Prime Minister to get on and deliver Brexit.
“It is clear, that by winning Bridgend and Ynys Mon, which haven’t had a Conservative MP for 32 years, that the people of Wales want to get Brexit done and that’s what we will do.”
First Minister Mark Drakeford described the overall General Election result as “deeply disappointing” but argued the Labour vote would have held across the UK if it had followed voting patterns in Wales.
Mr Drakeford said Mr Corbyn was right to stay on and oversee a “period of reflection” for Labour following the election defeat.
Congratulating the Prime Minister, he said: “Now the PM must reach out and heal the rifts he sought to widen in such a divisive election.
“He must be honest with the public about the very real and difficult challenges that lie ahead.”
Meanwhile Rhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru’s General Election campaign director, said the results showed the “myth that voting Labour protects Wales from the Tories has been completely shattered”.
Plaid Cymru retained all four of their seats, equaling their best ever result in terms of the number of MPs returned.
The Brexit Party failed to win a single seat, despite targeting Leavevoting Labour strongholds.