Cheryl Gillan is Shadow Secretary of State for Wales.
Rarely do we Welsh politicos have any Welsh specific polling to pore over. So this week’s YouGov poll on Wales was bound to set political and journalistic tongues wagging.
As well as going into some detail on matters from constitutional arrangements to confidence in the Labour Assembly Members seeking to step into Rhodri Morgan’s shoes, the headline announcement to come out of this wealth of data was burgeoning support for the Welsh Conservatives and the utter collapse in that for Labour in Wales.
Though Labour remain top according to the poll, with 34%, the drop-off in support would translate in electoral terms to the loss of nine Parliamentary seats. Conservatives, on the other hand, were second on 31%, which would mean an increase of nine seats and a total of twelve – our best performance since 1983.
Before we get too excited, this is a poll and not an election. We know there is still a way to go to turn these predictions into reality.
Yet, to be in a position where we could achieve a double figure haul of Conservative seats shows how far we have come in the years since our "near death experience" in 1997.
Our success in Wales has developed incrementally.
We have built this support through hard work year on year. In council elections, in Assembly elections, in European elections, in Parliamentary elections, we have increased our support bit by bit at every opportunity. Indeed, we are the only party who has done this, and these poll results are indicative of that momentum and our team efforts.
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