A senior Labour minister has admitted the party has ‘trodden too heavily on people’ in Wales, including the introduction of a 20mph speed limit, as it braces to lose power in the Senedd for the first time.
Trade Minister Chris Bryant said that Welsh Labour was guilty of acting like it ‘knew it all’ and had to have a major rethink if it loses control in Cardiff Bay.
Having controlled the assembly since it was set up in 1999, polls suggest Welsh Labour will be pushed into third place behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, with First Minister Eluned Morgan in danger of losing her seat.
Speaking to the BBC Mr Bryant, who has represented the Welsh seat of Rhondda and Ogmore and its predecessor seats since 2001, said that the implementation of the 20mph limit in built-up areas had been poorly managed.
He said it was a good plan that had saved lives, but ‘should have been implemented in a different way to the way it was’, which suggested the party ‘knew it all’.
‘Sometimes it is like we have trodden too heavily on people,’ he added.
‘It felt as if we always had the answers to everything, and that is never true for any political party.
‘So I think we are going to have to do a lot of rethinking.’
Trade Minister Chris Bryant said that Welsh Labour was guilty of acting like it ‘knew it all’ and had to have a major rethink if it loses control in Cardiff Bay
Speaking to the BBC Mr Bryant, who has represented the Welsh seat of Rhondda and Ogmore and its predecessor seats since 2001, said that the implementation of the 20mph limit in built-up areas had been poorly managed
Wales became the first country in the UK to reduce the default speed limit in built-up areas in 2023.
The move was strongly opposed, with a petition against the law having been signed by nearly 470,000 people – the largest in Senedd history.
According to the Welsh Government, the implementation of the default speed limit cost around £32 million.
Labour has been the largest party at country-wide elections in Wales for more than a century and won the most seats in the Welsh Parliament since its creation more than two decades ago.
However, Plaid Cymru and Reform have consistently topped opinion polls during the course of the campaign, with Labour being pushed into third place.
This election differs from those in previous years, with the Senedd expanding and a new proportional voting system being used.
There are now 16 constituencies in Wales, each represented by six members of the Senedd, resulting in 96 being elected, up from the previous 60.
Under the new system, the number of candidates elected from each party will be based on the percentage of votes the party received, and they will be elected in order from a list compiled by their party.
Ballot papers will be counted during the day on Friday, with the first results expected in the early afternoon and the final declarations in the evening.