Summary of the day …
The prime minister’s press secretary has responded to the Caerphilly Senedd constituency byelection, which saw a victory for Plaid Cymru with Reform UK in second place and a huge swing away from Labour, by saying “By-elections are always difficult for incumbent governments. [We] understand people are disappointed with the pace of change”
Lindsay Whittle has been sworn in as the Plaid Cymru Senedd member for Caerphilly in Cardiff after taking 47% of the vote with 15,961. Reform UK’s Llŷr Powell polled 12,113 with Labour’s Richard Tunnicliffe a distant third on 3,713
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said the result was “real evidence” people are turning to the party, and it was “clear” that “momentum is with Plaid Cymru now” heading into the 2026 Senedd election
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader in Westminster said “Plaid Cymru’s hope beat Reform’s hate” and that the result was another blow to Labour, showing the party’s “limp managerialism won’t cut it”
The leader of Reform UK, the Clacton MP Nigel Farage, said next year’s Senedd election – the first to be held under a proportional representation system – will be a “two-horse race between Reform UK and Plaid Cymru”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister and MP for Torfaen in south Wales, told Times Radio that Labour’s defeat in Caerphilly was “disappointing” and that the party had “a very tough fight” on its hands ahead of next year’s Senedd elections
In other news, the Liberal Democrats have decided gone on the offensive against Kemi Badenoch and the previous Conservative government over the collapse of the China spy trial, demanding “radical transparency” after it emerged that Rishi Sunak was the only politician to see a witness statement by the deputy national security adviser at the centre of the controversy about the collapse of a case against two British men
Your Party, the new left-wing movement led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, has secured its first elected representatives in Scotland after three Glasgow councillors defected from the Scottish Greens
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Downing Street for a bilateral meeting with Keir Starmer. Sarah Haque has been following that story on our Europe live blog
That is it from me, Martin Belam, today. Thank you for reading and all your comments. I will see you on the website somewhere soon.
Labour MP for Bradford East, Imran Hussain, who has spent a period during this parliament with the whip suspended, has said what he called the “devastating” loss in the Caerphilly Senedd constituency by-election was a “wake-up call” for his party.
In a post to social media, Hussain wrote:
The devastating loss in Caerphilly is a wake-up call for Labour. To rebuild support, we must return to real Labour values. Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden. We should tax the very wealthiest and act urgently on the cost-of-living crisis.
Richard Burgon, Labour MP for nearby Leeds East, who also had the whip restored in February of this year, took a similar tack, posting “The historic loss of Caerphilly is the direct result of the disastrous direction taken by the Labour leadership.”
