\n<\/p>\n
The skies above Caerphilly may have matched the turquoise of Reform UK but it was the green and yellow of Plaid Cymru that dominated the valleys town on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
The Welsh nationalists trounced their opponents with a hefty 47% of the vote in a Senedd byelection that was framed by many as a potential \u201ccanary in the coalmine\u201d moment for Welsh politics.<\/p>\n
Reform failed to live up to the hype and came second with 36% and Labour\u2019s vote \u2013 in a constituency it has held for decades \u2013 collapsed to a paltry 11%.<\/p>\n
It had been expected to be closer between Plaid and Reform, pegged as a 50-50 two-horse race. Both parties threw their weight behind the contest, with their respective leaders, Rhun ap Iorwerth and Nigel Farage, joining the campaign trail earlier this month. Farage pledged to \u201cthrow everything\u201d to secure a win.<\/p>\n
Outside the Castle Court shopping precinct, Robert Addicott, 61, who has always backed Plaid, could barely contain his joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic victory for Plaid, just from being the underdog for so many years and now winning in such a Labour stronghold,\u201d said the estates officer who has lived in the town his whole life.<\/p>\n
\u201cReform just didn\u2019t really have any idea about south Wales, or the Valleys or Caerphilly in particular at this time,\u201d he said, adding that people were more wary of Reform\u2019s policies than expected, including claims Farage\u2019s party would privatise large swathes of the NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very poignant that only about 2.9% of immigrants live in this area,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about immigrants coming into this country, and if they are here, they are welcomed here. But 2.9% doesn\u2019t really affect us within the Caerphilly borough.\u201d The Guardian has not been able to verify this statistic.<\/p>\n
Caerphilly Senedd byelection party results graphic<\/p>\n
Karen Lewis, 58, a technical support manager who has lived in Caerphilly for 39 years, said she voted for Plaid tactically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI voted Plaid just because that was the tactical vote to get to make sure that Reform didn\u2019t come to Caerphilly,\u201d she said. \u201cImmigration is absolutely not a problem in Caerphilly, and it would have been so embarrassing if Reform had won. I would have been embarrassed to say I\u2019m from Caerphilly if that had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be more humanitarian and kinder,\u201d she said, adding she did not want to be \u201cany part\u201d of Reform UK\u2019s support in the town.<\/p>\n
Outside Caerphilly Castle, the imposing medieval fortress that dominates the town centre, the Plaid Cymru candidate Lindsay Whittle celebrated his \u201chistoric win\u201d with banner-waving supporters.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, the people of Caerphilly created their own history, and we put Caerphilly firmly on the map,\u201d he said. \u201cI have received messages of goodwill, not only from all corners of Wales, but from Scotland. Can you believe, France? Can you believe, Australia, Spain and Canada?<\/p>\n \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Funnell, 35, an aircraft engineer from Caerphilly, backed Plaid Cymru, a nationalist party that once loudly banged the drum for Welsh independence, because he felt they were the only party that had \u201cthe best interests of Wales at heart\u201d.<\/p>\n Reform were a \u201cone track\u201d party focusing only on immigration, he said. \u201cJust seems to be all they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an issue, especially not out here. And I think people should be free to where they need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittle will not have long to settle into his new role as a member of the Senedd. The next full elections of the Welsh parliament will be held on 7 May next year and campaigning has already begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The skies above Caerphilly may have matched the turquoise of Reform UK but it was the green and yellow of Plaid Cymru that dominated the valleys town on Friday morning. The Welsh nationalists trounced their opponents with a hefty 47% of the vote in a Senedd byelection that was framed by many as a potential<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[16906,1731,16213,17763,211,2669,16212,838,122,503,123,1259],"class_list":{"0":"post-30310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-byelection","9":"tag-celebrate","10":"tag-cymru","11":"tag-cyrmu","12":"tag-didnt","13":"tag-idea","14":"tag-plaid","15":"tag-reform","16":"tag-south","17":"tag-supporters","18":"tag-wales","19":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}