Yahoo News Caerfyrddin general election 2024: Plaid Cymru win 'historic seat'
Plaid Cymru has won the new seat of Caerfyrddin by a majority of more than 4,500. Ann Davies was elected as the constituency’s MP at around 4am on Friday morning, beating off competition from Labour’s Martha Angharad O’Neil.
Mrs Davies - running in her first election campaign - secured 15,520 votes to gain a majority of 4,535 from an overall turnout of 45,791. Miss O’Neil secured 10,985 votes to finish in second place.
Simon Hart, former secretary of state for Wales and representing the Conservatives, came third in the vote with a total of 8,825, while Reform UK finished fourth with 6,944 votes.
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Caerfyrddin is one of the new constituencies formed after the boundaries for seats across the UK were redrawn in 2023. A part of the seat was formerly in the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency, which was previously represented by Plaid Cymru since 2001. Meanwhile, a section of the new constituency was formerly part of the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire seat, which had been under Conservative MP Simon Hart since 2010.
A full breakdown of the results for Caerfyrddin can be seen below:
Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru): 15,520
Martha Angharad O’Neil (Labour): 10,985
Simon Hart (Conservatives): 8,825
Nicholas Paul Beckett (Liberal Democrats): 1,461
Nancy Cole (Women’s Equality Party): 282
David Mark Evans (Workers Party of Britain): 216
Bernard Hilton (Reform UK): 6,944
Will Beasley (Green Party): 1,371
The overall number of votes cast in Caerfyrddin was 45,791.
Mrs Davies was showered with cheers as the result was announced at the Selwyn Samuel Centre in Llanelli before she spoke to Wales Online about her victory. "I’m delighted," she said. "A four and a half thousand majority is far more than I expected. I knew we’d had a good campaign, I knew we’d had a very positive campaign, but of course you don’t always have the result that you deserve.
"I do feel I have to thank all the volunteers and all the activists we had out in Carmarthen. It’s a historic seat because this is Gwynfor’s old seat (Gwynfor Evans, the first Plaid Cymru MP who was elected in Carmarthen in 1966), so it’s historic that this is coming back to Plaid Cymru under the new guise of the new constituency.”
Given the scale of her majority - and the fact that she secured almost twice as many votes as the Conservative candidate - Mrs Davies said she was very proud that so many people came out to vote for her after a hard-fought campaign. “I’m delighted and honoured that people have put their faith in me and I can promise them this - I will do my very, very best for Carmarthenshire. Everything that I do will be for this county.”
Plaid Cymru won Carmarthen East in 2019 but with Jonathan Edwards representing it as an independent for part of the term. It includes areas like Ammanford, Laugharne and Llandybie. Carmarthen West was a Conservative seat after the 2019 election.
Where does the constituency cover?
It includes areas such as Llangeler, Cenarth, Llanybydder, Llandovery and Llandeilo as well Carmarthen town wards.
