WALES — Welsh Labour won nine seats in the 96-seat Senedd election and finished in third place, with leader Eluned Morgan resigning in a concession speech immediately after losing her own seat. Morgan became the first leader of a government in the United Kingdom to lose her seat while in office.

Before any constituency result was declared, Labour released a statement saying it expected to win 10 MSs out of 96 seats in the newly expanded Senedd. The final tally fell one short of that projection. Welsh Labour had previously never held fewer than 26 seats in the 60-seat Senedd chamber that preceded the expansion.

Plaid Cymru is set to form a minority government in the Senedd. Morgan had succeeded Vaughan Gething as first minister in 2024.

Welsh Labour announced that Ken Skates, MS for Fflint Wrecsam and former cabinet secretary for transport, would serve as interim leader. The party will elect a new leader in the coming weeks. Only nine candidates are eligible for the contest, as the leader must be an MS and nominees need backing from 20% of MSs.

Welsh Labour held devolved government while Conservative governments held power at Westminster for 14 years. Wales embarked on devolution more cautiously than Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Cardiff Bay administrations initially had very limited powers. Keir Starmer advised his cabinet against what he called "overly deferential relations" with the devolved governments.

Last year, 11 Labour Senedd members wrote to the prime minister claiming his administration had been "deeply insensitive" to Wales or guilty of "constitutional outrage" for failing to deliver on devolution promises related to justice, policing, and the Crown Estate. Alun Davies, a Labour MS who lost his seat in Blaenau Gwent, said the party's defeat was "manufactured in Downing Street" by Starmer's "disregard" for Wales.

Laura McAllister, professor of public policy at Cardiff University, said Welsh Labour must be "more muscular about its Welshness" to survive. "There's a steady increase in the number of people who see themselves as Welsh only, or Welsh first and British second," McAllister said.