WELSH Labour interim leader Ken Skates said today that Labour’s defeat in the Senedd election was not any one person’s fault and that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should not step down — but former colleagues disagreed.

Mr Skates scraped in as the sixth and last Senedd Member to win a seat in Fflint Wrecsam, and is serving as leader until a full contest takes place.

He said: “These are really difficult times, and I don’t think it’s possible or right to blame one single individual when we’ve been facing the consequences of 15 or more years of economic decline, decay across our communities, of crisis, of Brexit, of Covid.”

Mr Skates was asked if Sir Keir should have stepped down after the disastrous results and said: “No, I don’t.

“We’ll be assessing forensically what happened. But we have to do that if we’re going to rebuild and restore trust.”

But former Welsh Labour cabinet member Mick Antinow said: “Labour must also confront the idea that, fairly or unfairly, Keir Starmer cannot lead the party into the next election.

“On doorsteps, voter angst was centred around the Labour government and its cacophony of U-turns and controversies: winter fuel payments, Waspi women, the two-child benefit cap, freebie rows and the appointment of Peter Mandelson.”

Former MS Alun Davies lost his Labour stronghold of Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni and called on Sir Keir to resign.

He said: “I think Keir Starmer should resign. This is an historic turning point for the Labour Party, the defeat was manufactured in Downing Street.

“We have walked away and turned away from the basic core values of the Labour Party and people recognise that.”