Carmarthenshire Labour confident of taking council administration with aid of Independents

A recent poll suggested that Carmarthenshire County Council could be in the hands of Welsh Labour.

Labour candidates out polling in the last day before the election also said that they were confident they would do well.

The question of whether or not they take control of the administration is more complex and would involve some form of coalition deal with members of other parties, the Independents being the main vehicle.

That said a number of former Labour councillors standing and calling themselves a group of New Independents could throw a spanner in the works if a large number of them oust Labour councillors. 

Kevin Madge a former leader of the council said that he would not work with the new independents. It is not difficult to see why. Many are long standing members of the Labour party who were either not selected to stand by Labour or who left the party. There is no love lost on social media with individual spats taking place over who did what, when and where. 

The Leader of Carmarthenshire Labour may not have any fingernails left by the weekend and there is just a chance that he may be ousted from his seat in the Lliedi ward although Callum Higgins disagrees and says that the Labour faithful will ensure the leader’s re-election. 

There are also whispers on the wind that the long standing Peter Hughes Griffiths of Plaid Cymru may fall to a Labour candidate and the ward has been flagged as one to watch. 

Plaid Cymru may also have shot themselves in the foot by putting candidates up in wards where Independents have historically been elected relatively unopposed according to Callum Higgins. He said: “Many Independents are good friends of mine and they won’t be happy that Plaid Cymru are targeting their wards having been in coalition with them for so long.”

Labour will be hoping that the ‘Drakeford Factor’ will kick in in the same way it did at the Senedd Elections. 

We took our election van on the road this week and we spoke to a number of candidates. For whatever reason, there were no Plaid Cymru candidates to be seen. 

The CEO of the council will be monitoring the results very closely and will almost certainly be aware of the plans each party has proposed should they take control. 

You can listen to our podcast of the van tour here: