Greens defeat Labour in Cardiff council by-election

This is also a serious blow for Plaid. A seat with a sizeable Welsh speaking middle class base and a large Muslim vote they’ve been chasing since the Iraq war. They who won the seat in a by-election in 2016 and it has been a target seat for them over the years. Another by-election where this oft talked about Plaid surge has not materialised at all and that in a ward where both of the Plaid lead senedd candidates live. The article mentioned senior Green politicians being present, I don’t think a single senior Plaid politician attended. To me that says it all and they deserve to be third.

This is a great result. A victory for radical progressive politics. Whether it’s Green, Plaid, Corbyn’s Party, or the Lib Dem’s, they are offering more than the dreadfully supine, timid, Starmer Labour politics. Voters are at last rejecting the two big party’s which have left a dreadful legacy for Wales.

The thurn outs though, this is how the far right can get in. Should be compulsory voting. Good for Green though.

The one thing that is clear from recent by-elections is that there are no longer any safe seats for Labour in Wales. This results in votes being spread far more thinly between five or six parties in elections , which will be even more true when the Corbyn/Saltana party starts to put up candidates. Even three or four years ago, it would have been very unusual for a party to win with less than a quarter of the vote. FPTP is no longer fit for purpose. When the Corbyn/Saltana party does start putting up candidates, it will further strip Labour of its core vote, making them even more vulnerable in elections than they already are. Of course, it's true that other parties could lose some votes to the new party as well (some polling suggests even Reform coud lose some votes to them). Similar to the way that Plaid might well have lost this by-election due to the 300+ votes taken by Propel, Labour will be the biggest loser when the new Corbyn/Saltana party starts to put up its own candidates. We are living in very interesting times indeed.

The labour vote collapses in another council by-election in Wales - not looking good for them in next year's Senedd election. Not a great result for Plaid either however, especially coming after last week's disappointing result in Llangennech. If Plaid wants to be the largest party in the Senedd next years tbey need to be winning seats like this one and Llangennech last week. I wouldn't read too much into Reform's result - apparently tbey had no real campaign to speak of in the area....but they still won nearly 500 votes. But a very good result for the Greens - maybe this part of Wales is their best hope of winning seats in the Senedd next year.

Thank goodness Reform came well down the table. And to be honest, the result was fairly close between the top three candidates. The true litmus test will be to see what happens in the next full council election, because last time there was a non-Labour victory (Plaid) in Grangetown, the seat was won back by Labour 12 months later.

They've tied themselves in knots over women's rights. Just can't get past that I'm afraid. A protest vote at best.

Decent result for Propel, blooding a new candidate, with a 12% increase in actual vote. We are a growing voice now where we have teams working. Our candidate, like many members are new to politics. Huge setback for Labour, with another English party being helped up by Plaid in the Greens. Grange was a Lib Dem seat & they have disappeared. Plaid got 44% in 2016, before they dismantled their Cardiff organisation. The past is a different country and the future can be also.

And another big win for the Greens in Newcastle, with a substantial drop in the Labour result. Urban seats that Labour used to hoover up. As Starmer so majestically said, "if you don't like (MY party), there's always the door". Looks like there's an exodus to the boat deck as his coffin ship sinks. The Corbyn project however now between 700,000 and 800,000. All to play for.

Congratulations to the Green Party. I don't believe Green Party policies are anti Wales so hopefully they will continue.

Embarrassing for Reform.

Grangetown has long been a proudly multicultural community. I'm not at all surprised that they saw through the racist grifter act of Defraud UK.

I believe come next May the Labour party in Wales will be finished the incompetence of Welsh Labour and the Way London Liebour have treated Wales no different from the Tories and they where all thrown out of Wales in the general election but i pray its PLAID gain the most and not the vile Reform they are a FASCIST ENGLISH NATIONALIST PARTY MAKE NO MISTAKE THATIS WHAT THEY ARE

There are some very interesting assumptions made in the comments. It wasn't a great blow to Plaid Cymru. The results were very close. A great blow to Labour is more accurate. Disappointing would be fair. I can say this as a member of the campaign team and attending the count yesterday. I'm uncertain where the large proportion of Welsh speakers live in Grangetown. Also, just because a person speaks Welsh it doesn't mean they are Plaid Cymru supporters. A large proportion of Labour Cardiff Councillors speak Welsh. I also disagree with the statement that Propel voters are disgruntled Plaid Cymru voters. The two Parties are poles apart. Propel voters are just disgruntled. Also the candidate is a popular local guy and many voted for the person not the Party. As a team Plaid Cymru feel we have established a good base to move forward.

Well done Matt. Glad to see Labour the real nasty party losing in their strongholds.

Unfortunately there is nothing in the recent bye elections which indicates that Plaid are anywhere near winning next year. Plaid supporters (I think they are) crowing over the fact the Labour lost. Well they beat Plaid, so what does that say?

Reform UK would enter a two man farting competition, putting up both competitors, just to proclaim to the world that it can win anything so turnout here is irrelevant. Their failure here is an Earthquake to be kept to a tremor if they can manage it. My former home area of Grangetown has for years proved that multiculturalism DOES work so don’t call here Braverman. I was sad to see that there were still 634 voters who came out to force home their anti Welsh and racist hate bigotry but I was overjoyed to note that their motives were democratically strangled by all the other voters. The message is ‘we do not want your divisive filth in Grangetown’. Take this result forward into all future elections, for peace, harmony and the survival of everything that is dear to us - THE MAJORITY!

Thank you Cardiff, good to see your folk didn't stoop to the levels of Llanelli and vote in someone from the anti Wales party.