Neath (Senedd constituency)

Not to be confused with Neath (UK Parliament constituency).

Neath (Welsh: Castell-nedd) is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, 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.

Neath Castell-nedd
Senedd county constituency for the Senedd
Neath shown as one of the 40 Senedd constituencies
Current Senedd county constituency
Created	1999
Party	Labour
MS	Jeremy Miles
Electoral region	South Wales West
Preserved county	West Glamorgan

History

Since the creation of the assembly the constituency has returned a Labour AM, with varying majorities, from 7.7% to 26.8%. The current incumbent Jeremy Miles is one of the first openly gay elected Members of the Senedd.^[1] Plaid Cymru are Labour's main opposition in the seat.

In the election in 2016 the constituency got the highest vote share from an Independent in Steve Hunt with 8.1% of the vote. Hunt was the only independent to save his deposit.

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 Neath Westminster constituency. It is entirely within the preserved county of West Glamorgan.

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

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.

Assembly Members and Members of the Senedd

Election		Member	Party	Portrait
	1999	Gwenda Thomas	Labour
	2016	Jeremy Miles

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

2021 Senedd election: Neath

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Regional[2]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jeremy Miles[a]	11,666	42.2	+4.9	11,221	40.8	+3.0
	Plaid Cymru	Sioned Williams	6,445	23.3	-2.5	7,265	26.4	-0.2
	Conservative	Mathew Williams	4,107	14.8	+6.2	4,486	16.3	+8.1
	Independent	Steve Hunt	2,418	8.8	New
	Green	Megan Lloyd	1,038	3.8	+1.5	1,098	4.0	+1.3
	Abolish	Simon Rees	751	2.7	New	1,000	3.6	-0.4
	Propel	James Henton	443	1.6	New	283	1.0	New
	Liberal Democrats	Iain Clamp	395	1.4	-1.5	528	1.9	-2.5
	Reform UK	Sean Prior	315	1.1	New	262	1.0	New
	UKIP					466	1.7	-13.4
	Independent	Caroline Jones				433	1.6	New
	Gwlad					183	0.7	New
	Freedom Alliance (UK)					181	0.7	New
	Communist					71	0.3	0.0
	TUSC					59	0.2	-0.3
Majority			5,221	18.93	+7.4
Turnout			27,578
	Labour hold		Swing
Notes Incumbent member for this constituency

Regional Ballot void votes: 174. Want of an Official Mark (23), Voting for more than ONE party or individual candidate (44), Writing or mark by which the Voter could be identified (0), Unmarked or Void for uncertainty (107)

Elections in the 2010s

Welsh Assembly Election 2016: Neath

Party		Candidate	Constituency[3]			Regional[4]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jeremy Miles	9,468	37.3	−16.1	9,570	37.8	-10.3
	Plaid Cymru	Alun Llewellyn	6,545	25.8	−0.8	6,736	26.6	+2.6
	UKIP	Richard Pritchard	3,780	14.9	New	3,810	15.1	+11.5
	Conservative	Peter Crocker-Jaques	2,179	8.6	-3.1	2,067	8.2	-2.6
	Independent	Steve Hunt	2,056	8.1	New
	Liberal Democrats	Frank Little	746	2.9	−1.2	1,040	4.1	+0.1
	Green	Lisa Rapado	589	2.3	New	682	2.7	+0.8
	Abolish					1,012	4.0	New
	Monster Raving Loony					194	0.8	New
	TUSC					122	0.5	+0.1
	Communist					74	0.3	±0.0
Majority			2,923	11.5	−15.3
Turnout			25,363	45.8	+4.7
	Labour hold		Swing	-7.65

Welsh Assembly Election 2011: Neath

Party		Candidate	Constituency[5]			Regional[6]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gwenda Thomas	12,736	53.4	+10.0	11,514	48.1
	Plaid Cymru	Alun Llewellyn	6,346	26.6	−9.1	5,733	24.0
	Conservative	Alex Powell	2,780	11.7	0.0	2,578	10.8
	BNP	Michael Green	1,004	4.2	New	845	3.5
	Liberal Democrats	Mathew McCarthy	983	4.1	−5.1	948	4.0
	UKIP					869	3.6
	Socialist Labour					504	2.1
	Green					457	1.9
	Welsh Christian					290	1.2	New
	TUSC					105	0.4	New
	Communist					78	0.3
Majority			6,390	26.8	+19.1
Turnout			23849	41.1	−2.4
	Labour hold		Swing	+9.6

Regional ballots rejected: 126^[7]

Elections in the 2000s

Welsh Assembly Election 2007: Neath

Party		Candidate	Constituency[8]			Regional[9]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gwenda Thomas[a]	10,934	43.4	−7.7	9,388
	Plaid Cymru	Alun Llewellyn	8,990	35.7	+6.9	7,297
	Conservative	Andrew Sivertsen	2,956	11.7	+2.6	2,519
	Liberal Democrats	Sheila Ramsay-Waye	2,320	9.2	0.0	1,799
	BNP					1,222		New
	Green					860
	UKIP					802
	Socialist Labour					387	0.	New
	Welsh Christian					292		New
	Respect					94	0.	New
	Communist					86	0.	New
	Keith James - Independent					83	0.	New
	Socialist Alternative (UK)					78	0.	New
	CPA					63	0.	New
	Joel Jenkins - Independent					45	0.	New
Majority			1,944	7.7	−14.6
Turnout			25,200	43.5	+4.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−7.3

Welsh Assembly Election 2003: Neath

Party		Candidate	Constituency[10]			Regional[11]
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gwenda Thomas[a]	11,332	51.1	+5.6	10,286
	Plaid Cymru	Alun Llewellyn	6,386	28.8	−7.0	5,740
	Liberal Democrats	Helen C. Jones	2,048	9.2	−0.6	1,891
	Conservative	Chris B. Smart	2,011	9.1	+2.0	1,903
	Welsh Socialist Alliance	David Pudner	410	1.9	0.0
	Green					1,001
	UKIP					510
	Socialist Labour					405
	Cymru Annibynnol					212
	ProLife Alliance					88	0.
Majority			4,946	22.3	+12.6
Turnout			22,187	39.1	−8.9
	Labour hold		Swing	+6.3

2003 Electorate: 56,759
Regional ballots rejected: 381

Elections in the 1990s

Welsh Assembly Election 1999: Neath^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gwenda Thomas	12,234	45.5	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	Trefor Jones	9,616	35.8	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	David R. Davies	2,631	9.8	N/A
	Conservative	Jill F. Chambers	1,895	7.1	N/A
	Socialist Alliance	Nicholas Duncan	519	1.9	N/A
Majority			2,618	9.7	N/A
Turnout			26,895	48.0	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Notes

1. Incumbent member for this constituency

References

1. "Three gay and lesbian AMs 'a milestone'". 7 May 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
2. "South Wales West Electoral Region Neath Constituency STATEMENT OF LOCAL TOTALS" (PDF). Retrieved 12 May 2021.
3. "Wales elections > Neath". BBC News. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
4. "Results and turnout at the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
5. "Wales elections > Neath". BBC News. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
6. "Results and turnout at the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
7. "Results and turnout at the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
8. Election results – 2007 Archived 9 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly for Wales
9. "2007 Assembly Election Results (updated) July 2007(Page 78 of the PDF / Page 72 of booklet)" (PDF). National Assembly for Wales. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
10. Neath, Political Science Resources
11. The National Assembly for Wales elections 2003. The Electoral Commission. November 2003. pp. 110–115. Retrieved 1 August 2021.

51°43′14″N 3°46′11″W