Labour report: election result in Wales 'disappointing'

Chris Ruane lost his Vale of Clwyd seat at the election, and sat on the Labour taskforce on the lessons of defeat.

Labour has just published its "learning the lessons from defeat taskforce report" - how and why it lost the 2015 general election.

This is what the taskforce, chaired by former acting leader Dame Margaret Beckett, says about Wales:

The result in Wales was disappointing - we underperformed compared with other traditional Labour heartlands. There was a small swing in votes to the Conservatives from Labour (0.3 per cent) compared to the average swing in England and Wales of 3.4 per cent. We lost two seats - Vale of Clwyd and Gower - to the Conservatives, by very small majorities.

"We won one of our target seats - Cardiff Central, which has a large student population -from the Liberal Democrats, who also lost a seat to the Conservatives. The Conservatives fought a campaign on local issues and played down national politics, and indeed played down the word "Conservative".

We remain the largest party by some distance, with a 10 per cent lead on the Conservatives. UKIP made large gains in votes, and, while they didn't win any seats, are in second place in five Labour seats. They could, therefore, present a threat in the Welsh assembly elections, because of the list system."

Its recommendations include this: "We are the largest party in Wales, but the Welsh assembly elections present a key electoral test, and our approach to them must be entirely without complacency, especially given the list system. In some parts of Wales we have had success in countering the threat of nationalism and of UKIP, but these lessons need to be learnt and applied across Wales as a whole."

The overall conclusions have been widely trailed and contain few surprises. You can read the report for yourself here.