Coffee House Shots: is this the end of Labour’s Wales?
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The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Is Labour about to lose Wales? That’s what the polling suggests. After 27 years, Wales is seeking change. The beneficiaries look to be the outsiders, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK. Why is it this moment in particular that people are seeking new answers?
In this special episode of Coffee House Shots, James Heale goes on the road across the Welsh valleys with Luke Tryl, UK Director of More in Common. Attending a series of focus groups, speaking to people on the doorsteps and across towns in the UK, they try to find out where Wales is heading in the local elections on May 7.
Produced by Megan McElroy.
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Transcript
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| 0:32.9 | Hello and welcome to the port-tail that steelworks.. In 2024, these furnishes closed after a |
| 0:37.7 | century of steelmaking production. It's in areas like this that Reform UK hope to pick up seats in the surrounding Welsh valleys. They are one of the two parties that dominate the poles, the other being plied Khmeru. And the last two days we've spoken to numerous voters and focus groups and on the doorsteps who very much expressed that desire for change. Welsh labour is dominated in this country more than a century, that rain looks to be coming to an end |
| 0:58.0 | on May the 7th. |
| 1:00.3 | Of all Labour's heartlands, none has more mythos or magic than Wales. |
| 1:04.5 | A past of pulpits and pits produced Nye Bevan and Roy Jenkins. |
| 1:08.3 | One in four Labour leaders have sat for seats here. |
| 1:11.2 | More than a century ago, |
| 1:12.5 | Keir Hardy forged Labour's rise from the valleys. In a fortnight's time, those same valleys could finish his namesake off. We came to find out how people are feeling ahead of May the 7th. What were there at Welsh Labour? I used to be Labour, no more. Really? Why? Well, do they end doing anything for us, see? |
| 1:27.4 | Right. |
| 1:27.9 | At the end of the day? |
| 1:28.5 | I'm usually labour, but I was green many years ago. |
| 1:31.0 | Why not labour this time? should be labour, no more. Really? Why? Well, do they end doing anything for us, say? Right. |
| 1:27.9 | The end of the day? |
| 1:28.5 | I'm usually labour, but I was green many years ago. |
| 1:30.9 | Why not labour this time? |
| 1:32.6 | Well, they're struggling. |
| 1:35.3 | What do you think of Welsh labour? |
... |
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