Waters, who served as Labour’s transport minister in the Welsh government, told BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement on May 31 that the party must reckon with the scale of its defeat. “There is no single reason why Labour collapsed… confronting the extent and the depth of the defeat is the first thing,” he said. “This is an existential crisis and I think Labour now needs to go back to first principles and rethink what it is for.”
Waters described watching the election results as “a painful and frustrating experience watching the slow-motion car crash” and said the party was “saved from wipe out” with its nine-seat total. Labour came third behind Plaid Cymru, which won 43 seats, and Reform UK, which took 34. It was the first time since the Senedd was established in 1999 that Labour failed to win the most seats in Cardiff Bay.
Waters said Labour came within 4,000 votes of the Conservatives. “That’s how bad it was,” he said.
Waters masterminded Wales’ law setting a default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas, a policy that drew significant public pushback from motorists and rural communities. He acknowledged the policy played a role in Labour’s losses.
“There are things like 20mph that definitely… took up a lot of political capital and caused a lot of difficulty,” Waters said. “We took a hit for that, you know, I’m not denying that. It’s achieved great things, but it’s come at a price.”
A Welsh Labour spokesperson called the results “catastrophic” and said voters had raised concerns about NHS access, roads, local services, the cost of living and trust in politics. “We can’t ignore that. These results are a reflection on us all and we’ll all have to learn lessons from them,” the spokesperson said.
Waters said he expected difficult discussions ahead but cautioned against reducing the defeat to any single factor. While acknowledging the 20mph policy’s political cost, he pointed to a broader pattern of voter dissatisfaction with the party’s record in government.
Plaid Cymru’s First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has promised to tackle congestion along the M4 motorway with a “roads-based solution” after Labour shelved relief road plans in 2019. Waters said the transition from opposition to governing would test the new administration. “In opposition, your job is to try to win as many allies as you possibly can. You’re not forced to choose, you’re not forced to confront the trade-offs,” he said.
“When you govern, you make mistakes,” Waters added, pointing to Labour’s experience in Westminster as well as in Cardiff Bay.