Sunday, 23 October 2016

Hain blames Blaengrach council loss on Corbyn not Labour's local failings.


Former Welsh Secretary Peter Hain has pointed the finger of blame at the UK Labour leadership after the party lost a council seat to Plaid Cymru.
Mr Hain took to Twitter after Plaid won the Neath Port Talbot seat of for Blaengwrach, which had been held by Alf Siddley who passed away in August.
The former Neath MP said Labour candidate Ann Price had fought an “excellent” campaign and the loss was “mainly” the consequence of the UK leadership.
Despite excellent local Ann Price @welshlabour lost Labour held Neath council seat Plaid 48% to 30% mainly consequence@UKLabour leadership
If he had added contest at the end then he might have a more serious point

Blaengwrach (Neath Port Talbot) result:
PC: 48.0% (+3.6)
LAB: 30.5% (-25.1)
IND: 12.4% (+12.4)
UKIP: 8.3% (+8.3)
CON: 0.9% (+0.9)


The 2012 result  in a year that was good for Labour was

Labour 360
Plaid 290

But Plaid had already lost the seat in 2008 and it is Caroline Edwards the former councillor who has regained the seat after a eight year gap. Mr Hain might consider the response of Plaid AM Bethan Jenkins who has been very impressive lately.

Yes and how many doors did YOU knock Hain? Poor poor loser.

I'm not sure how much we can read in to this NPT is one of those councils where Labour are challenged by different Parties in different parts of the county.
Though currently  there are 50 Labour 9 Plaid and 5 Independents though there has been a strong Ratepayer  fraction  as well as Liberal Democrats  a local Social Democrat party  and the occasional  Tory.
Thursday result should be a Platform for Plaid to regain  seats it lost in 2012 but as the main opposition they can expand beyond their current boundaries and may be one of the councils to watch if Plaid are going to turn more areas of Wales Green in 2016




1 comment:

Owen said...

Not taking anything away from the point here, but....um....didn't Peter Hain's father die very recently? Stay classy, Bethan.