Welsh Labour faces existential crisis, says former minister

Welsh Labour faces an existential crisis and should learn lessons from its poor performance in the Senedd election, according to a former minister.

Lee Waters, who was a Labour transport minister in the last Welsh government, described it as a "painful and frustrating experience watching the slow-motion car crash" with the party being "saved from wipe out" with just nine seats.

Labour came third behind Plaid Cymru (43 seats) and Reform (34 seats) after winning every Cardiff Bay election since 1999.

A Welsh Labour spokesperson: "These were catastrophic results for us and we need to take the time to determine what went wrong."

Waters said, while there was "no single reason why Labour collapsed... confronting the extent and the depth of the defeat is the first thing".

"This is an existential crisis and I think Labour now needs to go back to first principles and rethink what it is for.

"We came within 4,000 votes of the Conservatives, that's how bad it was.

Waters, who masterminded the introduction of Wales' controversial law setting a default 20mph limit in built-up areas, said: "When you govern you make mistakes and they're [Labour] finding that themselves in Westminster.

"There are things like 20mph [law] that definitely... took up a lot of political capital and caused a lot of difficulty.

"We took a hit for that you know, I'm not denying that.

He said Plaid faced some difficult decisions following a transition from opposition party to having power in Cardiff Bay.

"Will it be easy to deliver? No, it won't, nor will it be cheap," said Waters.

"In opposition, your job is to try and win as many allies as you possibly can.

"You're not forced to choose, you're not forced to confront the trade-offs."

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said: "Voters raised serious issues about NHS access, roads, local services, cost of living and trust in politics.

"These are the issues people live with everyday and they felt we weren't doing anything to help that. We can't ignore that. These results are a reflection on us all and we'll all have to learn lessons from them."