Plaid Cymru have won a key seat in the Senedd after a Reform UK surge allowed Welsh nationalists to snatch the traditionally Labour seat away from Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
Lindsay Whittle, a long-standing councillor in the Penyrheol ward and leader of the group on Caerphilly Council, won the seat with 47.38 per cent of the vote.
In second place was Reform UK’s Llŷr Powell on 35.9 per cent, while Welsh Labour’s Richard Tunnicliffe came third with just 11 per cent – in a humiliating defeat for the party.
Labour has run the Welsh Parliament since the devolved administration was first established in 1999 and Caerphilly has been one of its strongholds.
But opposition parties hoping to form the next Welsh Government have run fierce campaigns in the South Wales constituency, with many seeing this week’s byelection as a bellwether for the Senedd election next May.
The by-election also comes in the run-up to a vote on the next Welsh Government budget, which has heaped even more pressure on the Labour campaign.
When passing its last budget in March, the Government needed the help of an opposition member to get it through by a tight margin.
While Labour is the largest party in the Senedd, it does not have a majority, and the next budget vote in January is likely to be even more difficult after losing the Caerphilly seat.
The by-election was called following the death of Hefin Wyn David, a Labour politician who was first elected in Caerphilly in 2016.
There will be an inquest into his death in April next year.
