On Thursday 7 June 2001, the 2001 United Kingdom general election was held in Wales, to elect all 659 members of the House of Commons, with 40 constituencies being in Wales.
Candidates
Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1997 general election in Wales.
Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 40Conservative Party 40Liberal Democrats 40Plaid Cymru 40UK Independence Party 25Green Party of England and Wales 6Other 33Total 224
Analysis
The overall result remained exactly the same as in the previous election in 1997, with only two changes - Labour gained Ynys Môn from Plaid Cymru and Plaid gained Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour. The Conservatives, despite taking the second largest number of votes in Wales, once again won no seats; this was only the second election since 1918 to leave them with no representation in Wales.
A BBC report of the election in Wales stated that "Despite a night of high tension the political map in Wales virtually looks the same as before".
The only seats to change hands were Carmarthen East and Dinefwr which Adam Price of Plaid Cymru gained from Labour and Ynys Môn which Labour gained from Plaid Cymru. Plaid failed to gain Rhondda which Chris Bryant held for Labour with a majority of over 16,000, a result the BBC said meant that Bryant had "confounded his critics". Bryant, a former curate who had once been a member of the Conservatives had been criticised as being an odd fit and "too exotic" for traditional Labour supporters in the constituency which he was contesting for the first time. This had led Plaid Cymru to feel they had a chance of a victory, a feat they had surprisingly achieved in the equivalent constituency at the 1999 National Assembly for Wales election. Plaid's candidate Leanne Wood had publicly claimed she would win 53% of the vote. Plaid's performance by the percentage points (14.3 per cent) would be its best result up until 2024.
The Conservatives again failed to win any seat in Wales, with their best result being in Monmouth where they finished just 384 votes behind Labour. The Liberal Democrats failed to add to their two seats, with Jenny Willott reducing Labour's majority in Cardiff Central to just 659 votes.
Results Below is a table summarising the results of the 2001 general election in Wales.
+PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%) 34 1 1 85.0 666,956 48.6 6.2 4 1 1 10.0 195,893 14.3 4.3 2 0 0 5.0 189,254 13.8 1.5 0 0 0 — 288,623 19.6 0 0 0 — 12,552 0.9 0.9 0 0 0 — 3,753 0.3 0.2 0 0 0 — 2,805 0.2 0.2 0 colspan="3" — 2,258 0.2 0 0 0 — 1,609 0.1 0.1 0 0 0 — 384 0.0 0 colspan="3" — 278 0.0 Others 0 0 0 0.0 7,959 0.6 Total 40 0 100.0 1,372,324 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 61.6 11.9
See also 2001 United Kingdom general election in England 2001 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 2001 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (2001–2005)
References