WELSH Labour moved fast to appoint former economy secretary Ken Skates as its acting leader in the wake of crushing election results to the new Senedd.

He succeeds Eluned Morgan, the outgoing First Minister who failed to save her own seat in an election that saw Labour reduced to just nine seats in the Senedd out of 96, a historic setback in a country it has dominated for a century.

Mr Skates, an associate of disastrous former leader Vaughan Gething, said: “Today is just the beginning of a process that will help us to understand what we got wrong. Because we did get it wrong.”

Election winners Plaid Cymru, with 43 Senedd seats, hope to form a minority government. Labour may abstain in the vote on First Minister, which would be enough to get the nationalists’ leader Rhun ap Iorwerth over the line.

Plaid has spoken to all other parties in the Senedd, other than second-placed Reform, which all the democratic parties are shunning.