Blow after blow for Labour as the post-mortem begins

There is anger, there is bitterness, there is real sadness. There is some disbelief, there are also some sticking of heads in the sand

The blows have kept coming for Labour. Devastating polls. Slap. Election hammering, left hook. Leader humiliated. Right hook. Welsh secretary in excoriating attack on both Welsh and UK Labour? Roundhouse kick.

Former cabinet secretaries taking their turn? Jab. Jab. Not one, but two First Ministers entering the ring? Ouch. UK Labour infighting – boom, hit, whack.

All in all, there is barely an inch of Labour left without a bruise in the two weeks since the Senedd Election in Wales. The postmortem is in its early stages and will continue for some time. Some of it publicly, some amongst whatsapp groups.

The emojis, the swearing, the disbelieving comments each tell a story.

There is anger, there is bitterness, there is real sadness. There is some disbelief, there are also some sticking of heads in the sand. For some of those that Labour overlooked in selection battles, there is relief they got an effective get out of jail free card.

While the rest of the new 2026 members are walking about the Senedd with smiles on their faces, the emotions for the Labour gang are different.

To those elected for the first time, or promoted to cabinet, the natural greeting as you see them around the estate is “congratulations”.

The tone when you say that to a Labour member is different. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here

Are they really glad to be there?

As I sat and watched plenary on Tuesday from the public gallery, the starkness of Labour’s defeat was obvious.

With one of the nine on maternity leave, and one in the speaker’s chair, when Ken Skates looks behind him for support, there were just six pairs of eyes there to meet his.

His group isn’t on the front benches, it is packed in to a section of the new chamber that is shared by the Tories, Lib Dems, Greens and a spillover of Plaid.

One thing that is clear, even already, is there are few that have anything bad to say about Eluned Morgan’s approach. She tried, she threw everything at it.

One of her aides told me in the days before it was “hyper marginal”. In the event, it wasn’t. She was roundly defeated

While she knew, she didn’t let on.

When the tiredness, so patently obvious when she told voters to “vote Plaid Cymru” rather than her own “Plaid Llafur” she styled it out like a pro.

More than one person has praised her grace at the count, and her stoic statement in the hours after her defeat.

She has maintained a dignified silence.

That isn’t the same for others.

Within hours the opinion pieces started circulating. Carwyn Jones, Mick Antoniw, Jo Stevens all immediately had their say.

Then, as Welsh Labour felt the dust had settled enough to put Ken Skates up for interviews, Mark Drakeford had his say.

In an opinion piece and then a TV interview, he tore into Welsh and UK Labour, he said Prime Minister Keir Starmer needed to stand down and backed Andy Burnham.

Meeting Ken Skates this week, the eternally enthusiastic veteran politician’s smile was notably absent. He spoke of needing to be humble, and boy was he.

He vowed to conduct a “listening exercise” – a phrase we’ve heard before.

But there are questions about how much that is just words. There is anger in the ranks of those who spent weeks on the doorsteps only to be publicly humiliated on stages across the country.

There is anger about what, if anything, is changing behind the scenes.

There is anger that some of those who have been there throughout are failing to acknowledge their own mistakes.

While Jo Stevens criticised others, people asked what she had been doing at the cabinet table.

Vaughan Gething spoke on TV about how things wouldn’t have been have as bad if he’d not been ousted. He said he wasn’t responsible in any way, yet when Mark Drakeford had his say, he disagreed.

But Mark Drakeford’s comments triggered others too – questions immediately arrived in my inbox about why he didn’t admit what he personally got wrong.

Ken Skates said he was “generously” appointed interim leader, and that he wants the rebuilding job himself.

That rebuilding job is huge.

His resources in the group will be vastly depleted. The support it has had to help staff, draw up policy and operate will be sliced, dramatically.

There have long been questions about whether Labour has put the right people in the right jobs or appointed from within – he admitted he will need to be ruthless.

The words he says about being humble, about being ruthless about listening, simply have to be more than words.