Welsh Labour election sees right defy members

In another sign of how the Labour right still has influence, the left has failed to win the deputy leader of the Welsh Labour Party.

This is despite its candidate Julie Morgan winning almost two thirds of the members’ votes.

The result was announced before Carwyn Jones revealed he would stand down as first minister later this year.

Labour’s electoral college gives equal weight to the members, the affiliates (mostly trade unions), and MPs and Assembly members. Just 58 politicians had a third of the vote. Morgan took more than 65 percent of the members’ vote, but her opponent Carolyn Harris won both the MPs and AMs section, and the affiliates section.

Harris took 51.5 percent of the vote overall.

After the result Momentum chair Jon Lansman tweeted, “The process was a travesty of democracy and insults the people of Wales. The Welsh exec deliberately chose to limit members’ say to a third.

“They knew what they were doing. It’s called gerrymandering.”