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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Peter Walker Senior political correspondent

Caerphilly result is blow to Labour and Reform – and shows parties who cannot adapt will be crushed

A large group of smiling men and women hold Plaid Cymru placards
The Plaid Cymru candidate, Lindsay Whittle (centre). and the party’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth (left), celebrate on Friday after winning the Caerphilly byelection. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

If anyone inside No 10 allowed themselves a sigh of relief at Reform UK’s advance being stymied in the Caerphilly byelection, they would then have heard the warning from Lindsay Whittle, Plaid Cymru’s winning candidate: “You are on your way out after 100-plus years.”

Labour in Wales might or might not be “a dying beast”, as Whittle argued, but this one-off Senedd race illustrated how it was on course to lose its grip on Welsh politics in May, with potentially wider implications for Keir Starmer and his party.

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