Madam,

I would like to congratulate Ben Lake and Plaid Cymru on their closely fought election win.

I want to thank every single one of the 8,017 people who voted for Labour, and also I want to thank all of our campaigners and supporters.

We achieved our best result in Ceredigion for 20 years by campaigning positively and ambitiously, with minimal resources, for a new kind of politics and a return of hope.

We got by far the biggest vote swing of all the parties in Ceredigion and Labour are now clearly visible as the most dynamic party in Ceredigion politics.

The work that we did on the doorstep and on social media paid off, with newly registered and first-time voters engaging with the tone and optimism of our politics. Ex-Labour voters returned to the fold. We gained massive support as well from voters in Aberystwyth.

Our estimates of the vote share in Aberystwyth show us way out in the lead with 44 to 48 per cent of the vote. Bear in mind also that the vote did not include a proportion of the students in Aberystwyth or Lampeter, many of whom had returned home for the holidays.

It is now clear that the ‘two-horse race’ of Ceredigion politics is consigned to the past. Labour are now within 3,500 votes of Plaid and the Lib Dems, and we are experiencing yet another local and national membership surge.

Ceredigion Labour will continue to campaign and consolidate our support at a local level, but we are also ready for the next election, whenever that may be.

Yours etc,

Dinah Mulholland, Lampeter.

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