Around 5,000 seats across 136 local councils will now be up for grabs, following the government's U-turn on council election delays. Ministers had granted 30 authorities permission to delay elections until May 2027 - including five areas where polls had already been put back from May 2025. But in February, the government said those elections would go ahead in May this year, following legal advice in the wake of a challenge from Reform UK.
In a little over 100 days three and a half months time voters in Wales will elect a new devolved government. Opinion polls suggest the prospect of a groundbreaking result: Labour being rejected for the first time ever. The valleys of South Wales are steeped in Labour's storied past. Hardie, Bevan, Kinnock and Foot -- the giants of this movement have walked these streets. But the mood within Welsh Labour as it contemplates elections across this nation is bleak, even black.