Plaid Cymru’s newest member of the Welsh Parliament said “the world is watching Wales” after the party’s historic by-election victory.
Lindsay Whittle, who won the Caerphilly Senedd seat with a majority of 3,848 votes and a swing of almost 27% from Labour, said the result had “put Caerphilly on the map”.
The result will embolden Plaid in its efforts to enter government in Wales next year, and is a bitter blow for Labour, which had held the seat since the Senedd was established in 1999.
Mr Whittle told supporters on Friday: “Yesterday the people of Caerphilly created their own history and we put Caerphilly on the map firmly.
“I have received messages of goodwill, not only from all corners of Wales, but from Scotland, France, Australia, and Spain and Canada.
“That is a mark of how important yesterday was to Wales and the world, because now I believe the world is watching Wales and watching an emerging nation start to control our lives again.”
Rhun ap Iorwerth, leader of Plaid Cymru, said the result is “real evidence” that people are turning to the party more than ever before.
“This is a momentous result,” he added.
“The fact that it’s in the context of a Welsh general election in just six months’ time, with people here in this constituency embracing that vision of Plaid Cymru for the first time, shows me that we can take that vision to every part of Wales, and that there’s no part of Wales where we can’t win.
“It’s clear that Reform were expecting to win here, and that we were expecting to see the leader of Reform at the count last night.
“It turns out that they were way behind Plaid Cymru, because the people of Caerphilly said we are not interested in that divisive politics.
“I want to show them that Plaid Cymru shares that frustration, shares that anger at the way the merry-go-round of Conversative, Labour politics has let them down, but there’s a positive way of doing it.
“That’s what Labour should have concentrated on, that’s what Plaid Cymru did, and what we will continue to do.”
