Plaid Cymru ousts Labour in Caerphilly byelection
Plaid Cymru has hailed its win at the Caerphilly byelection as a historic moment for Wales, as the dramatic result left the leaders of Labour and Reform UK wounded,Rhun ap Iorwerth’s party, which wants independence for Wales, seized the Senedd (Welsh parliament) constituency from Labour and resisted a fierce challenge from Reform UK,Plaid Cymru’s candidate, Lindsay Whittle, received 15,961 votes, while Reform UK’s Llŷr Powell won 12,113,Labour’s vote collapsed in what had been a stronghold, with its candidate, Richard Tunnicliffe, polling only 3,713 votes,The Welsh nationalists’ triumph was being put down in part to their clear, passionate call for the people of south Wales to reject Reform UK’s stance on immigration.
It leaves Labour, which runs the Welsh government, facing the prospect of a meltdown at next year’s full Senedd elections,Ap Iorwerth said the people of Caerphilly had chosen “hope over division and progress over the tired status quo”,He said: “We are now the real choice for Wales, the only party able to stop billionaire-backed Reform and offer a better future that works for everyone,Wales is ready for new leadership,”The party said: “The victory marks a historic win for Plaid Cymru and a seismic political shift in Wales, signalling the collapse of Labour’s vote and a new two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK ahead of the 2026 Senedd election.
”The Labour Senedd member Alun Davies, talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, criticised his party in Westminster for the way it had been speaking about refugees and “using the language of Reform”.But the Labour UK Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds claimed Keir Starmer openly took on Reform in his conference speech.He said: “With regard to the issue of the small boats crossing the English Channel and securing our borders, that is because people are saying to us, very clearly, it’s a huge priority for them.”The polling expert Sir John Curtice said the result suggested Plaid was well-placed to lead the next Welsh government.But, he said: “I don’t think we should run away with the idea that this suggests that Nigel Farage’s bubble is burst.
”The winning Plaid candidate asked people to remember Hefin David, whose sudden death led to the byelection.“He will be a hard act to follow.I will never fill his shoes, but I promise I will walk the same path that he did.”Reform’s Powell said the party had learned a lot about campaigning, which would be put to good use at next year’s Senedd elections.“A big part of what we were trying to do here is to master our campaigning.
We’ve trained so many people up on our systems,We’re now a grassroots campaigning party,”Labour has dominated in Wales for a century but the party, which runs the Welsh government, now holds just 29 of the 60 Senedd seats and the byelection result makes it more difficult for it to pass its 2026-27 budget, which could leave the people of Wales facing cuts to public services,The Welsh first minister and Welsh Labour leader, Eluned Morgan, said: “Welsh Labour has heard the frustration on doorsteps in Caerphilly that the need to feel change in people’s lives has not been quick enough,We are listening, we are learning the lessons, and we will be come back stronger.
”The most senior Labour figure at the count, Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister of Wales, accepted that the party would have to think deeply about the result, but struck a defiant tone,He said: “Some people are now writing us off,I have to paraphrase Mark Twain: rumours about death are greatly exaggerated,There have been occasions before where Wales has lost seats that are deep red and on those occasions we’ve bounced back having listened and come back with a compelling vision for people that is better than the doom and discord of people like Reform,“I think we need to get back to focusing on those bread-and-butter issues, things such as cost of living, the money in people’s pockets, jobs and opportunities for young people.
”Irranca-Davies called on Plaid to talk to Labour about the budget.“It is really incumbent on some of those parties in the Senedd to come and talk to us about how we pass that budget.”Immigration grabbed headlines during the byelection.Migration is not a devolved issue, and only about 3% of the people in the area were not born in the UK, but Reform made much of a vow to end what it called Labour and Plaid’s “mass immigration agenda”.Labour’s standing in Wales has dropped off a cliff since Vaughan Gething stepped down as first minister last year amid a donations scandal.
Morgan has tried – but so far failed – to draw a line between Welsh Labour and the increasingly unpopular UK party.
Welsh rugby to lose one of its four regions in the next three years
The number of professional men’s rugby teams in Wales is to be cut from four to three within the next three years. The Welsh Rugby Union had been pushing for a two-team solution but, after a period of consultation, has now announced there will be funding for only three pro sides in the future.The four existing regions – Cardiff, Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons – will remain for the moment but are to be reduced to three by 2028, with teams based in the capital city, east Wales and west Wales. It means there will be insufficient room for both the Scarlets – formerly Llanelli – and the Swansea-based Ospreys who could now come under pressure to merge. If a merger proves impossible – highly likely with so much history and rivalry involved – a “fair and transparent” tender process would decide the outcome
Dan Skelton out of traps fast in trainers’ title battle with Cheltenham double
The feature race had a finish worthy of the festival itself here on Friday, as Harry Skelton summoned a final lunge for the line from Fortune De Mer in the Grade Two novice hurdle and edged out Doctor Blue by a short-head. “He’s a quirky sort,” Dan Skelton, the winner’s trainer, said afterwards, “but he’s got plenty of ability, and that’s an 80 grand race, so we won’t worry about the next one too quickly.”Skelton already has the County Hurdle at the festival meeting here in March as a long-term target for Friday’s winner – “it would really suit him, lots of runners and smuggling him around in a race like that” – while the £48k first prize was supplemented by a further £52k for his prize money total when Calico took the feature handicap chase later on the card.That was more than enough to extend Skelton’s lead at the top of the trainers’ table after Olly Murphy, currently his closest rival, had taken the novice chase with Alnilam earlier on the card, and he is currently odds-on to win the championship for the first time when the season concludes in April.Having seen the prize snatched away by Willie Mullins’s familiar springtime surge in each of the past two campaigns, however, he will take nothing for granted until the final penny has been counted
Your Guardian sport weekend: rugby league Ashes, Lionesses v Brazil and F1’s title tussle
Dominic Booth helms our essential gateway to the day’s football action. He will be looking forward to Saturday’s four Premier League fixtures – Chelsea v Sunderland, Newcastle v Fulham, Manchester United v Brighton and Brentford v Liverpool. There’s also the prospect of the Lionesses hosting Brazil at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium as well as Wales Women facing Australia in Cardiff. There’ll be team news and breaking stories as well as any wash-up from Friday night’s Leeds v West Ham match.England’s head coach, Shaun Wane, has been waiting five years for a “smash-up” with Australia and is relishing the role of underdogs in the first of three long-awaited Tests
England in Women’s World Cup semi-finals but questions remain for Charlotte Edwards
It’s official: Sunday’s World Cup match between England and New Zealand will be Sophie Devine’s last one-day international. After their loss against India on Thursday, New Zealand can no longer qualify for the semi-finals: the 36-year-old Devine, who made her international debut in 2006 and has represented her country for more than half her life, will not be signing off with another world title.She still has the chance to finish with a win, though. The New Zealand captain has already scored 266 runs in the tournament, including a century against Australia, so it could be a fierce tussle against England’s attack – and an emotional one. Expect to see tears come the anthems, as well as blood and sweat in the sweltering humidity of Visakhapatnam
In an affluent and crowded T20 market how is the BBL supposed to compete? | Jack Snape
The BBL may have been born near the start of Twenty20 era, but ahead of its 15th season growing pains have set in. Cricket Australia wants to tap private funding to help Australia’s men’s and women’s competitions keep pace in franchise cricket’s crowded landscape. But as the BBL rubs up against well-heeled upstarts in the sport’s increasingly unstable calendar, its true worth can be difficult to assess.Few are better placed to do so than Venky Harinarayan, the Indian-born, Silicon Valley investor, who is a leading name in San Francisco’s venture capital scene. In the sport he loves, he established his home town’s franchise the Unicorns in 2023 with co-owner Anand Rajaraman, and made headlines when he signed Pat Cummins in a pioneering four-year deal that gave Major League Cricket [MLC] legitimacy
England’s Shaun Wane banks on experience as rugby league’s Ashes ends 22-year hiatus
It has been a long time between drinks – 22 years to be exact. The Ashes were last staged in 2003, meaning more than two decades have elapsed without international rugby league’s greatest rivalry, a wait which finally ends on Saturday at Wembley. For Shaun Wane, the wait must have felt like an eternity.If you were fortunate enough to be there when Wane was appointed as England coach in February 2020, it is easy to remember that he could not hide his delight that his first assignment was an Ashes series that autumn. Of course, within weeks the world had ground to a halt due to Covid-19 and the chance of taking on Australia on home soil disappeared
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