Swansea East (Senedd constituency)

Not to be confused with Swansea East (UK Parliament constituency).

Swansea East (Welsh: Dwyrain Abertawe) is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. It is one of seven constituencies in the South Wales West electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to seven constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Swansea East Dwyrain Abertawe
Senedd borough constituency for the Senedd
Swansea East shown as one of the 40 Senedd constituencies
Current Senedd borough constituency
Created	1999
Party	Labour
MS	Mike Hedges
Electoral region	South Wales West
Preserved county	West Glamorgan

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

The constituency was created for the first election to the Assembly, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the Swansea East Westminster constituency. It is entirely within the preserved county of West Glamorgan.

The other six constituencies of the region are Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore and Swansea West.

Assembly members and Members of the Senedd

Election		Member	Party	Portrait
	1999	Val Feld	Labour
	2001	Val Lloyd
	2011	Mike Hedges

Voting

In general elections for the Senedd, each voter has two votes. The first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Member of the Senedd for the voter's constituency, elected by the first past the post system. The second vote may be used to vote for a regional closed party list of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation.

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

2021 Senedd election: Swansea East

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Regional[1]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mike Hedges	12,950	60.1	+8.0	10,999	50.7	+8.3
	Plaid Cymru	Rhiannon Barrar	3,250	15.1	+1.8	3,406	15.7	+0.8
	Conservative	Cameron Brennan	2,497	13.7	+5.3	3,591	16.5	+7.4
	Liberal Democrats	Sam Bennett	1,055	4.9	-2.7	877	4.0	-6.9
	UKIP	Dan Morgan	567	2.6	-13.3	457	2.1	-13.6
	Abolish	Cameron Edwards	484	2.2	New	738	3.4	±0.0
	Reform UK	Darren Rees	295	1.4	New	224	1.0	New
	Green					670	3.1	+0.8
	Freedom Alliance (UK)					201	0.9	New
	Independent	Caroline Jones				170	0.8	New
	Propel					137	0.6	New
	Gwlad					118	0.5	New
	Communist					69	0.3	±0.0
	TUSC					57	0.3	-0.1
Majority			9,700	45.0	+8.8
Turnout			21,098	34.6	−1.1
	Labour hold		Swing
Notes

Regional Ballot void votes: 139. Want of an Official Mark (0), Voting for more than ONE party or individual candidate (38), Writing or mark by which the Voter could be identified (0), Unmarked or Void for uncertainty (101)

Swansea East saw the lowest turnout at the 2021 election of any constituency in Wales.^[2]

Elections in the 2010s

Welsh Assembly Election 2016: Swansea East

Party		Candidate	Constituency[3]			Regional[4]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mike Hedges[a]	10,726	52.1	-6.3	8,724	42.4	-9.6
	UKIP	Clifford Johnson	3,274	15.9	New	3,236	15.7	+11.1
	Plaid Cymru	Dic Jones	2,744	13.3	+0.9	3,056	14.9	+3.6
	Conservative	Sadie Vidal	1,729	8.4	-6.2	1,866	9.1	-2.4
	Liberal Democrats	Charlene Webster	1,574	7.6	-1.2	2,248	10.9	+2.6
	Green	Tony Young	529	2.6	New	471	2.3	+0.2
	Abolish					689	3.4	New
	Monster Raving Loony					135	0.7	New
	TUSC					76	0.4	-0.2
	Communist					53	0.3	+0.1
Majority			7,452	36.2	7.6
Turnout			20,576	35.7	4.5
	Labour hold		Swing	11.1

Welsh Assembly Election 2011: Swansea East

Party		Candidate	Constituency[5]			Regional[6]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mike Hedges[7]	11,035	58.4	+16.9	9,902	52.0	+14.4
	Conservative	Dan Boucher[8]	2,754	14.6	+4.8	2,196	11.5	+2.5
	Plaid Cymru	Dic Jones	2,346	12.4	−3.1	2,158	11.3	-4.2
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Samuel	1,673	8.8	−8.7	1,572	8.3	-8.7
	BNP	Joanne Shannon	1,102	5.8	New	886	4.7	-3.4
	UKIP					869	4.6	-0.3
	Socialist Labour					703	3.7	+2.4
	Green					398	2.1	-0.7
	Welsh Christian					201	1.1	New
	TUSC					114	0.6	New
	Communist					45	0.2	-0.1
Majority			8,281	43.8	+19.8
Turnout			18,910	31.2	−3.8
	Labour hold		Swing

Regional ballots rejected: 154^[9]

Elections in the 2000s

Welsh Assembly Election 2007: Swansea East

Party		Candidate	Constituency[10]			Regional[11]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Val Lloyd[a]	8,590	41.5	−5.7	7,806	37.6	-5.6
	Liberal Democrats	Helen Ceri Clarke	3,629	17.5	−6.8	3,528	17.0	-3.0
	Plaid Cymru	Danny Bowles	3,218	15.5	+2.7	3,217	15.5	+1.2
	Conservative	Bob T. Dowdle	2,025	9.8	+3.3	1,858	9.0	+1.4
	Independent	Alan Robinson	1,618	7.8	New
	Independent	Ray Welsby	1,177	5.7	New
	Independent	Gary D. Evans	460	2.2	New
	BNP					1,681	8.1	New
	UKIP					1,025	4.9	-2.4
	Green					576	2.8	-1.2
	Socialist Labour					271	1.3	New
	Welsh Christian					206	1.0	New
	Socialist Alternative (UK)					152	0.7	New
	Keith James - Independent					133	0.6	New
	Respect					106	0.5	New
	Joel Jenkins - Independent					71	0.3	New
	Communist					70	0.3	New
	CPA					38	0.2	New
Majority			4,961	24.0	+1.1
Turnout			20,717	35.0	+4.6
	Labour hold		Swing	+0.6

Welsh Assembly Election 2003: Swansea East

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Regional[12]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Val Lloyd[a]	8,221	47.2	+1.6	7,480	43.2
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Malcolm Black	4,224	24.3	+5.3	3,462	20.0
	Plaid Cymru	David R. Evans	2,223	12.8	−14.6	2,484	14.3
	UKIP	Alan Robinson	1,474	8.5	N/A	1,263	7.3
	Conservative	Peter A. Morris	1,135	6.5	−1.5	1,323	7.6
	Welsh Socialist Alliance	Alan Thomson	133	0.8	New
	Green					687	4.0
	Socialist Labour					463	2.7
	Cymru Annibynnol					145	0.8
	ProLife Alliance					25	0.1
Majority			3,997	22.9	+4.7
Turnout			17,410	30.4	−5.7
	Labour hold		Swing	−1.8

2003 Electorate: 57,252
Regional ballots rejected: 364

2001 Swansea East by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Val Lloyd	7,484	58.1	+12.5
	Plaid Cymru	John G. Ball	2,465	19.2	−8.2
	Liberal Democrats	Rob Speht	1,592	12.4	−6.6
	Conservative	Gerald Rowbottom	675	5.2	−2.8
	UKIP	Tim C. Jenkins	243	1.9	New
	Green	Martyn Shrewsbury	206	1.6	New
	Socialist Alliance	Alan Thomson	173	1.3	New
	New Millennium Bean Party	Captain Beany	37	0.3	New
Majority			5,019	38.9	+20.7
Turnout			12,875	22.6	−13.5
	Labour hold		Swing	−10.0

The first by-election to the Welsh National Assembly was held on 27 September 2001 following the death of the sitting Labour Party AM, Val Feld.

Elections in the 1990s

Welsh Assembly Election 1999: Swansea East^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Val Feld	9,495	45.6	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	John G. Ball	5,714	27.4	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Malcolm Black	3,963	19.0	N/A
	Conservative	William Hughes	1,663	8.0	N/A
Majority			3,781	18.2	N/A
Turnout			20,835	36.1	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Notes

1. Incumbent member for this constituency