Llanelli LAB Gain

Welsh assembly election

constituency

	Llanelli	LAB Gain

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Catherine Thomas	LAB	9916	42.8	3.0
	Helen Mary Jones	PC	9895	42.7	0.5
	Gareth Jones	CON	1712	7.4	0.8
	Kenneth Rees	LD	1644	7.1	-3.2
		MAJORITY	21	0.1
		TURNOUT	23488	40.9	-8.0

ELECTORATE	57428

Top-up region: Mid and West Wales

DESCRIPTION: Llanelli

Other parts of Wales are just as proud of their home patches, but Llanelli is one of those areas which seems to inspire a special passion among its townsfolk. Witness the fight the Welsh Rugby Union had on its hands with its proposals to submerge the local rugby club into a province. But Llanelli is not averse to political change, as Labour discovered to its shock at the first assembly elections. A constituency which had long been faithful to Labour produced one of the most startling results of 1999 when it voted for Plaid Cymru’s Helen Mary Jones. In some ways, this should have been less of an upset than Plaid’s other dramatic victories over Labour, in Rhondda and Islwyn. Both those seats are in more anglicised areas to the east, whereas Llanelli is the largest town in Carmarthenshire – a county which has been a happier hunting ground for Plaid.

Llanelli straddles the divide between the industrial valleys of south-east Wales and the rural west. The town’s traditional industries were steel and tinplate, which gave birth to its nickname tre sospan (saucepan town) and its rugby anthem “Sospan Fach”. It has suffered from industrial decline but has also seen major environmental improvements, notably the 21 km millennium coastal path from Loughor to Pembrey.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 WELSH ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS		PC WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	PC	11973	42.1
	LAB	11285	39.7
	LD	2920	10.3
	CON	1864	6.6
	499	345	1.2

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	17586	48.6
	PC	11183	30.9
	CON	3442	9.5
	LD	3065	8.5
	GRN	515	1.4
	SLP	407	1.1