The Llanelli Standard offers congratulations to Lee Waters on his Llanelli victory in the 2021 Senedd Elections!
Llanelli has traditionally been a close race between Labour and Plaid Cymru, with both parties having held the constituency at one time or another since the devolution of powers. In the 1999 National Assembly for Wales elections, Helen Mary Jones won the seat, but Labour’s Catherine Thomas won it back in the 2003 elections. Labour has held Llanelli since 2011, but has often won by very narrow margins. In the 2016 election, Lee Waters won by a little under 400 votes, an extremely narrow margin, but even more exceptionally, Catherine Thomas won Llanelli for Labour in 2003 by a miniscule 21 votes.
In the current elections, Labour achieved 13,930 votes, while Plaid Cymru won 8,255 votes, a difference of 5,675 votes, showing that the gap between Plaid Cymru and Labour in Senedd elections continues to grow, reversing the more recent trend of a very marginal gap.
This also marks the first time in Llanelli’s Senedd elections where the incumbent has held onto their seat in the next election cycle.
Llanelli is part of the greater trend of Labour holding ground in most battlefields and is likely to remain the primary political influence in Wales, with the Conservatives likely holding the next most seats.
