Labour is celebrating a very good night in Wales, losing just one Assembly seat.
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Beaming Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood won the iconic constituency of Rhondda – ejecting Labour Minister Leighton Andrews.
In a great night for her party, Ruth Davison won her seat in Edinburgh Central, making her the first Scottish Conservative leader not to need the list system to enter the Scottish Parliament since 2005.
That Ukip rally did materialise – Nigel Farage’s party claimed seven AMs, including disgraced ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and former Tory turncoat Mark Reckless, who was ditched by Kent voters previous year. Following the results announcement, Williams promised that the party’s rebuild “begins here”, but with her now being the only Lib-Dem in the chamber (down from six elected in 2011) her party will no longer have official recognition in the assembly.
The biggest shock of the night has been Plaid Cymru’s unexpected win over Labour in the Rhondda.
“Unless the Labour party changes course then Ukip will continue to go on growing at the expense of Labour”.
The party, which is looking to have a record fifth term in office, saw Carl Sargeant holding on to his Alyn and Deeside seat.
“I make a commitment tonight to serve all, whether they backed Plaid Cymru or not”.
In May 2011, Mr George was elected to represent Montgomeryshire, achieving a swing of nine per cent from the Liberal Democrats with 43.7 per cent of the vote, and a majority of 2,324.
The former health minister went head-to-head with Plaid leader Ms Wood – and the mother-of-one’s gamble to switch from a regional seat to a constituency paid off as she took 50.6% of the vote.
Prof Scully added: “Unless our poll is vastly over-stating their support, or that support fails to turn out, Ukip are still likely to win regional list seats tomorrow across most, if not all, of Wales’s five electoral regions”.
“A new dawn is about to break in Wales”.
Academic and political commentator Professor Roger Scully, who drew up a seat projection based on the figures, said Labour remains the party to beat.
“People have recognized that after 17 years of the same party running the government it is time for a change”, Wood told BBC Television.
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As well as increasing her share of the vote, her 15,898 votes were more than double those of the second-placed Tory candidate.
