LABOUR PUTS ANOTHER NAIL IN ITS OWN COFFIN

For the increasing numbers of those who want to make the curtailing of Reform UK in Wales an urgent priority there has been another major setback.

Swansea West and Gower  (Gwyr Abertawe) was one of those Senedd seats where there was a serious argument that the best way to minimise the Reform UK seats in 2026 would be to get behind the Labour list, either by an electoral pact or by tactical voting.

However the advent of the Labour short-list and the manner of its production makes this a far, far more difficult call. It is pretty obvious that the priority of the Wales Labour party was to keep Libby Nolan off the shortlist. 

How could those who did the short-listing not choose Libby? They had to pick 7 out of 9 longlisted candidates.  With the greatest respect to those short-listed, Libby and the Leader of Swansea Council, Rob Stewart, were the two serious contenders to join Mike Hedges at the top of the Labour List. Having Libby as number two to Mike Hedges would have made this a Labour list well worth working for. Mike has a reputation as an extraordinarily effective MS and was the only MS to support Jeremy Corbyn from start to finish. Ironically he was automatically number one on the list since all sitting MSs wishing to stand again went to the top of the list. 

Libby has worked in the NHS for 40 years and has been a cardiac nurse at Morriston hospital for the last 25 years. She is almost a legend as a dedicated workplace warrior. She is on the National Executive of UNISON and was President in 2023/24. She has gone out of way to support workers in struggle, appearing on a range of picket lines. She has spoken up about the genocide of the Palestinians at every opportunity, and spoke at nearly all the major national demonstrations in support of Gaza.

She has huge experience as a negotiator, policy maker, caseworker and campaigner. She is a working class woman. She has a first class degree, with distinction, from the University of Life. What more could you want?

Well, it seems that what those who run Wales Labour want is the certainty that Rob Stewart will be ranked at number two on the Labour list, since it seems possible that Labour will only win two seats in the Constituency. There was a danger that the constituency membership might have ranked Libby at number two instead, which was one reason for taking her off the shortlist. So all the insistence on gender balance and geographical spread went out of the window and Labour supporters (what’s left of them) will be asked to go out campaigning for two men from one ward (Morriston). Swansea West and Gower have two MSs currently. Both are women.  They are in danger of this being replaced by two men.

It is also sad to note that one of the two CLP representatives involved in drawing up the shortlist is widely known to have a strong ambition to become the Leader of Swansea Council. This will only happen if the present leader is elected to the Senedd.

And maybe this tells us most about the closed, delusional world of the Cardiff acolytes of the Starmer regime. On the day that IDF forces were encircling Gaza City and the United Nations had formally confirmed a famine in Gaza, a representative of Libby’s own Union thought it appropriate to ask her how she would deal with ‘anti-semitism’ in the Labour Party!

Fly on the Wall