'I used to be Labour. No more.' – who will win Wales?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Port Talbot steelworks. |
| 0:07.0 | In 2024, these furnishes closed after a century of steelmaking production. |
| 0:12.0 | It's in areas like this that Reform UK hope to pick up seats in the surrounding Welsh valleys. |
| 0:16.0 | They are one of the two parties that dominate in the polls, the other being applied Khumru. |
| 0:20.0 | And the last two days we've spoken to numerous voters in focus groups and on the doorsteps, who very much expressed that desire for change. Welsh labour has dominated in this country from all a century, that rain looks to be coming to an end on May the 7th. Of all Labour's heartlands, none has more mythos or magic than Wales. A past of pulpits and pits |
| 0:38.4 | produced Nye Bevan and Roy Jenkins. One in four Labour leaders have sat for seats here. |
| 0:43.6 | More than a century ago, Keir-Hardie forged Labour's rise from the valleys. In a fortnight's time, |
| 0:48.2 | those same valleys could finish his namesake off. We came to find out how people are feeling |
| 0:52.0 | ahead of May the 7th. |
| 0:53.7 | Were they about Welsh Labour? I used to be Labour, no more. Really? Why? Well, the end of anything, for us, say? The end of the day. I'm usually labour, but I was green many years ago. Why not labour this time? Well, they're struggling. What do you think of Welsh labour? Crap they are. Crap they are. Okay. |
| 1:12.6 | Do you have any idea how you might vote? |
| 1:14.6 | Not an idea. Not an idea. |
| 1:16.6 | But we've got to go forward. I mean, where the jobs gone in Wales? |
| 1:20.6 | And what do you reckon of Eleanor Morgan, the first minister? |
| 1:23.6 | I don't think she's taken us forward at all. |
| 1:26.6 | And what do you make of the First Minister, Eleanor Morgan? |
| 1:29.3 | Okay. I mean, he's not a leader though. I mean, you know, you look like a leader, Jim |
| 1:37.3 | but he haven't got that presence, like... |
| 1:40.3 | We met up with Luke Trill, UK Director of More in Common, for a road trip through the valleys and surrounding areas. |
| 1:45.9 | And next month's elections for the Welsh Parliament, Starmus Party could come third. |
| 1:50.1 | And made a battle for resources people are seeking new answers. |
| 1:53.0 | Across a series of focus groups, we try to find out why. |
... |
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