‘Time for Wales to cut a new key for our own front door’

PLAID Cymru’s Hywel Williams has managed to hold on to the Arfon seat with an increased majority.

In the last election that took place in July 2017 Mr Williams (pictured) held his seat by just 92 votes against Labour’s candidate Mary Griffiths Clarke.

But this time around the party gained 13,134 votes, a 4.3% increase in their share of the vote compared with 2017, when they got 11,519 votes.

The Labour Party, which had identified the seat as a target, finished in second place.

Its candidate Steffie Williams Roberts got 10,353 votes.

Conservative candidate Gonul Daniels got 4,428 votes, while Gary Gribben, the Brexit Party candidate, got 1,159 votes.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Williams said: “I would like to thank the Lib Dems and the Greens, who joined us in the ‘Right to Remain’ coalition.

“And prove that progressive politics can be a matter of agreement rather than a matter of competition.

“Inspirational marchers in Cardiff, Merthyr Tudful and Caernarfon have proved that people demanded a better future for Wales.

“It’s high time for Wales to cut a new key for our own front door. And when we have that key, the front door will be open to everybody.”

Labour’s Steffie Williams Roberts congratulated Hywel Williams on his re-election and praised him as a “superb MP”.

She said: “I think we can all agree that we are in safe hands, because here in Arfon, voters were quite lucky that they had different but similar candidates with strong values and beliefs.”