Labour have continued to well at elections in Wales, despite its poor performance at a UK level. Carwyn Jones led the party to success at the Assembly elections in 2016, and there is a sense of real contrast with Corbyn’s leadership. That said, Labour made real gains at the last local elections, and the slide in the national polls is likely to take its toll at some point, and now may be the time. The First Minister has already downplayed expectations, and has accepted that Labour will likely lose overall numbers of seats.
Welsh Labour hope to:
- maintain overall control of 8 of the 10 current administrations.
- make small gains and maintain current successful coalitions as smaller party in 2 areas Conwy and Ynys Mon
- continue to lead coalition in Flintshire
- make gains to take coalition lead away from Plaid in Carmarthenshire.
Welsh Labour have chosen not to publish a Wales-wide local government election manifesto. At their campaign launch in Newport, Carwyn Jones said that they would instead only produce local policy documents, as what works in one local area may not work in another.
Manifestos are available here for Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham and Flintshire.