Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says he is ready to become first minister and form next Welsh government
Plaid Cymru has won the Welsh Senedd elections, ending 100 years of Labour dominance in Wales and blocking the momentum of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
The leader of the centre-left Welsh nationalist party, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said he stood ready to become first minister and form the next Welsh government, taking over from Welsh Labour, who have governed in Wales since devolution began in 1999.
The Plaid win makes a Welsh independence referendum a future possibility, and means all three of the UK’s Celtic nations will now be controlled by separatist parties.
Reform UK came second, pushing Labour into a distant third place. Plaid won 43 seats, Reform 34, Labour nine, the Conservatives seven, Greens two and Liberal Democrats one.
Speaking in Llandudno, north Wales, ap Iorwerth said: “The people of Wales have today decided on the next steps in Wales’s journey. Plaid Cymru now stands ready to take the necessary steps to form the next government.
“This is a moment 100 years in the making,” he said, referencing the party’s founding in 1925. “We have won because we represent hope over division, credibility over chaos, and progress over stagnation.”
Ap Iorwerth said his name would be put forward to be nominated as the next first minister but – with no overall majority – suggested he would talk to other parties that shared Plaid’s goals to create a fair, compassionate nation, adding: “Plaid Cymru will press ahead with those conversations with urgency.”
Under Wales’s new, more representative electoral system, at least 49 seats are needed for a majority. No party was likely to win that, but Friday’s results mean Plaid Cymru can comfortably form a minority government.
Polls consistently suggested Plaid Cymru and Reform UK were neck and neck in the race to become the biggest party under Wales’s new more proportional voting system. As in last year’s closely watched Caerphilly Senedd by-election, however, the contest was not as close as predicted.
Eluned Morgan, who took over Welsh Labour in 2024, is the first leader of a government in the UK to lose their seat while in office. Speaking at her election count in Llandysul in west Wales, Morgan said she would resign as Welsh Labour leader and took “full responsibility” for the result, but called for the UK Labour government to “change course”.