Corbyn’s new low as Welsh desert Labour
LABOUR’S dwindling support under Jeremy Corbyn was laid bare yester- day, as a new poll showed the party had sunk to a new low in its historic Welsh heartland.
Support for Labour is just 22 per cent, placing it behind the Tories on 24 per cent and only four points above the Brexit Party, the YouGov poll says.
It is a further boost to Boris Johnson who is due to visit Wales for the first time as Prime Minister today.
The poll results are being blamed on Labour’s woeful Brexit strategy and a “Boris bounce” in the country that voted to leave the EU in 2016.
Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said: “Labour’s strategy on Brexit has been disastrous. Anuerin Bevan said if you stand in the middle of the road, you will get run down.
“We should have stuck to our guns and said we are the party that wants to leave the EU, but we must leave with a deal. Or you could go fullthroated for a second referendum, which personally I wouldn’t agree with. But it’s a strategy and it’s clear. What you can’t be is all things to all people. The fall-out of that is what we’re seeing now.”
Mr Kinnock said support for Labour in Wales would return if an election took place after Brexit, when the party could once again dominate “bread and butter” political issues.
Labour has ruled Welsh politics for decades. Party founder Keir Hardie and ex-premiers Ramsay MacDonald and James Callaghan represented Welsh seats and, since 1998, all four Welsh Assembly first ministers have hailed from the party.
Mr Kinnock said Labour had also been squeezed by the popularity of Mr Johnson, who has promised to take Britain out of the EU with no deal if necessary. The Brexit Party has also mopped up Labour Leave backers. Academics have described the results of the poll as unprecedented for Labour.
Professor Roger Awan-Scully said Mr Corbyn and First Minister Mark Drakeford “appear to be well on course to presiding over the destruction of their party’s near century-long hegemony in Welsh politics”.
A Labour source said: “Before the 2017 election, Welsh polls put us way behind the Tories, but under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership we won the majority of Welsh seats and achieved our highest share of the vote for 20 years.”
The scene is set for a knife-edge by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire on Thursday, that will give Mr Johnson a parliamentary majority of just one if anyone but the Tories win. The Liberal Democrats are favourites.