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2005 United Kingdom general election in Wales

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Field	Value
election_name	2005 United Kingdom general election in Wales
country	Wales
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	2001 United Kingdom general election in Wales
previous_year	2001
election_date	5 May 2005
next_election	2010 United Kingdom general election in Wales
next_year	2010
seats_for_election	All 40 Welsh seats to the House of Commons
image1
leader1	Tony Blair
party1	Labour Party (UK)
leader_since1	21 July 1994
last_election1	34 seats, 48.6%
seats1	29
seat_change1	5
popular_vote1	594,821
percentage1	42.7%
swing1	5.9%
image4
leader4	Michael Howard
leader_since4	6 November 2003
party4	Conservative Party (UK)
popular_vote4	297,830
percentage4	21.4%
swing4	0.4%
last_election4	0 seats, 21.0%
seats4	3
seat_change4	3
image2
leader2	Charles Kennedy
leader_since2	9 August 1999
party2	Liberal Democrats (UK)
last_election2	2 seats, 13.8%
seats2	4
seat_change2	2
popular_vote2	256,249
percentage2	18.4%
swing2	4.6%
image5
leader5	Ieuan Wyn Jones
leader_since5	3 August 2000
party5	Plaid Cymru
last_election5	4 seats, 14.3%
seats5	3
seat_change5	1
popular_vote5	174,838
percentage5	12.6%
swing5	1.7%
map_image	WalesParliamentaryConstituency2005Results.svg
map_size	180px
outgoing_members	List of MPs for constituencies in Wales 2001–05
elected_mps	List of MPs for constituencies in Wales 2005–10

Main article: 2005 United Kingdom general election

These are the results of the 2005 United Kingdom general election in Wales. The election was held on 5 May 2005 and all 40 seats in Wales were contested.

Results

Below is a table summarising the results of the 2005 general election in Wales.

Party	Seats	Aggregate Votes	Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	Of all (%)	Total	Of all (%)
	29	0	5	5	72.5	594,821	42.7	5.9
	3	3	0	3	7.5	297,830	21.4	0.4
	4	2	0	2	10.0	256,249	18.4	4.6
	3	0	1	1	7.5	174,838	12.6	1.7
	1	1	0	1	2.5	23,230	1.7	1.1
	0	0	0		0.0	20,297	1.5	0.6
	0	0	0		0.0	7,144	0.5	0.2
	0	0	0		0.0	3,461	0.2	New
	0	0	0		0.0	1,772	0.1	New
	0	0	0		0.0	1,689	0.1	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	1,605	0.1	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	1,437	0.1	New
	Others	0	0	0		0.0	8,346	0.6	0.5
40					1,392,719	62.4	0.8

Outcome and changes

The election saw Labour lose ground in Wales although it still won 29 of Wales' 40 constituencies and 42.7% of the vote. In what the BBC described as a "sensational defeat". Labour lost Blaenau Gwent, its "safest seat in Wales" to Independent Peter Law, a member of the Welsh Assembly who had left Labour to contest the election following a dispute about the use of an all-women shortlist in the selection of Labour's candidate.

Plaid Cymru, also fell back losing Ceredigion (to the Liberal Democrats) and failing to regain Ynys Môn which they had narrowly lost to Labour in 2001. This followed on from what the BBC described as "a poor performance" by Plaid Cymru at the 2003 National Assembly for Wales election, when it was reduced from 17 seats to 12. Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader who was re-elected as MP for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, said the result was "extremely disappointing". However he also stated that while the result was "a set back...but it's not half as bad as the media speculation would suggest", noting he and Plaid's two other MPs increased their majorities, and that "If 1,400 votes had gone the other way, we would have won Ynys Mon and held Ceredigion."

The Conservatives made three gains from Labour (Clwyd West, Preseli Pembrokeshire and Monmouth, the first time there had been Conservative MPs from Welsh constituencies since the party had been wiped out in Wales in the 1997 election. The Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Bill Wiggin, said after the result "Never again will Wales be a Conservative-free zone". However, the Conservatives failed to win two other target Labour-held seats, Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff North, which the BBC described as "disappointments" for them, and Wiggin admitted that he would have liked the Party to win more seats in Wales.

The Liberal Democrats gained two seats (taking Cardiff Central from Labour in addition to their gain of Ceredigion), thereby doubling their Welsh total to four seats. Lembit Öpik, the Welsh Liberal Democrats leader, described this as a "fantastic night" for his party in Wales, and called their gaining of Ceredigion the "result of the night". He also added that by having the second highest number of Welsh MPs the Welsh Liberal Democrats were now "the official opposition" to Labour at Westminster.

References

(23 May 2005). "Election 2005 | Wales". BBC News.
(6 May 2005). "Labour loses safest seat in Wales". BBC Election 2005.
(6 May 2005). "Plaid reeling after double blow". BBC Election 2005.
(6 May 2005). "Tories back on the electoral map". BBC Election 2005.
"Leaders assess election shake-up". BBC Election 2005.
(6 May 2005). "Lib Dems win Cardiff, Ceredigion". BBC Election 2005.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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