Did teenagers have the final say? A by-election in a sleepy Welsh town became a test of the changing political tide in Wales and across the UK. But did young voters tip the balance?
Election defeat ‘humiliation for Labour’
Patient Plaid: Election winner Whittle (above) first joined Plaid Cymru aged 15 in 1968, but has waited until his 70s to get his taste of victory. Comprehension quiz
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The word “harbinger” in this context means:
A: An official announcement
B: A final result
C: A person or thing that signals the approach of another
D: A political campaign
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Which word is the closest synonym for “lamentable”?
A: Surprising
B: Pitiful
C: Expected
D: Steady
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According to the article, why was the Caerphilly constituency “deeply symbolic” for the Labour party?
A: It was the first time 16- and 17-year-olds could vote there.
B: The council leader had recently defected to Plaid Cymru.
C: Reform UK was expected to win the by-election.
D: Labour had held the Senedd seat since 1999 and the Westminster seat since 1918.
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Identify two different issues mentioned in the article that caused voters to be unhappy with Labour.
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What is the writer’s intention in including the phrase: “A one-legged donkey could run for Labour and people around here would still vote for it”?
A: To show that voters in South Wales were not sensible.
B: To criticise the quality of past Labour candidates.
C: To emphasise how extremely loyal the area traditionally was to the Labour party.
D: To explain why Labour lost the election so badly.
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Besides the Labour loss, identify two other factors the article mentions that made this by-election “historic”.
Answers
Tap to reveal
1. C 2. B 3. D 4. Any two of the following: the state of the NHS, immigration, social care, the unpopularity of the Welsh government, the unpopularity of Keir Starmer. 5. C 6. It was the last election to use the first-past-the-post system (before changing to D'Hondt), and it was only the second time 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in Wales.
1. C 2. B 3. D 4. Any two of the following: the state of the NHS, immigration, social care, the unpopularity of the Welsh government, the unpopularity of Keir Starmer. 5. C 6. It was the last election to use the first-past-the-post system (before changing to D'Hondt), and it was only the second time 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in Wales.
Glossary
Caerphilly - A town in south Wales with a population of 41,000.
Plaid Cymru - The Welsh nationalist party. Its first MP, Gwynfor Evans, entered parliament in 1966 — the same year as the Aberfan disaster.
By-election - An election held outside a general election to replace an MP who has resigned or otherwise left office.
Pastoral - Land used for grazing sheep or cattle or, in the Christian church, appropriate to the giving of spiritual guidance.
Constituency - An area whose voters elect a person to represent them.
Devolution - The decentralisation of government power to regional authorities. An example of devolution is the establishment of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
NHS - The National Health Service, the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. The NHS was founded in 1948.
Reform UK - Officially Reform UK, a political party set up in 2018 as the Brexit Party. Its most prominent figure is Nigel Farage.
Nigel Farage - A British politician and broadcaster who has served as Leader of Reform UK since June 2024.
First Past the Post - A voting system in which the winner is simply whoever comes first in each area. As such, the winning party almost never has a majority of the vote, and sometimes might even win a smaller share of the vote than its opponent.
Proportional voting system - Proportional representation covers a number of different voting systems in which the number of seats a party gets links closely to the proportion of the total votes cast they received. Some people think it is fairer than the First Past The Post method, in which the person with the most votes is declared the winner.
Harbinger - Someone or something that announces the approach of something else. An indicator.