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The 1999 Welsh Labour leadership election was held on 20 February 1999. Alun Michael was elected as Labour's nominee for First Secretary. [1] Michael would go on to become First Secretary in a minority Labour government following the 1999 Assembly election. Runner up Rhodri Morgan went on to serve in Michael's first cabinet and then succeeded him as First Secretary in February 2000.
In the 1997 general election, the Labour Party won a landslide victory against the governing Conservative Party, returning to government after 18 years in opposition. [2] Labour's election manifesto included a commitment to hold a devolution referendum in Wales to determine whether to establish a devolved Welsh assembly. [3] The 1997 Welsh devolution referendum returned a narrow majority in favour of devolution and led to the establishment of the devolved National Assembly for Wales in May 1999. [4] [5] The assembly would be led by the First Secretary of Wales. [4] As Labour was expected to win the most seats in the first election to the assembly, scheduled for May 1999, its leader in Wales would likely become the inaugural first secretary. [6] [7]
Rhodri Morgan, the Labour MP for Cardiff West, and Ron Davies, the secretary of state for Wales and Labour MP for Caerphilly, contested the 1998 Welsh Labour leadership election to become leader of the Labour Party in Wales and therefore its nominee for first secretary. Davies won the election but had to resign shortly after when he was involved in an alleged gay sex scandal in Clapham Common. Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed the Blairite Alun Michael to succeed Davies as Welsh secretary and planned for him to become the first secretary without a leadership election. [7] This appointment was made to prevent Morgan, who had a long-held ambition to lead the assembly, [8] from becoming Labour's leader in Wales. [9]
The new leader was elected using an Electoral College in which the votes of elected officials (Welsh Labour MPs, MEPs and assembly candidates), individual members and affiliates were weighted equally at a share of one-third each.
A third candidate, Swansea-based businessman and lawyer, Roger Warren Evans announced his intention to run saying he would be the party's "rank and file" representative, [10] although ultimately he didn't stand.
| Candidate | Affiliated members (33.3%) | Individual members (33.3%) | Elected members (33.3%) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alun Michael MP | 64.0% | 35.7% | 58.4% | 52.7% | |
| Rhodri Morgan MP | 36.0% | 64.3% | 41.6% | 47.3% | |
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Welsh Labour, formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales, is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 1922, every Assembly and Senedd election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in the period 1979–2004 and in 2014. Welsh Labour holds 22 of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities.
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