The 1998

Welsh Labour Party Welsh Labour ( cy, Llafur Cymru) is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 192 ...

leadership election was held on 19 September 1998.

Secretary of State for Wales The secretary of state for Wales ( cy, ysgrifennydd gwladol Cymru), also referred to as the Welsh secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Wales Office. The incumbent is a member ...

Ron Davies was elected as Welsh Labour Leader and nominee for First Secretary.

Candidates

* Ron Davies,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for Caerphilly since 1983 and

since May 1997. *

Rhodri Morgan Hywel Rhodri Morgan (29 September 1939 – 17 May 2017) was a Welsh Labour politician who was the First Minister of Wales and the Leader of Welsh Labour from 2000 to 2009. He was also the Assembly Member for Cardiff West from 1999 to 2011 and ...

for Cardiff West since 1987, backbencher, Chair of Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee since May 1997.

Result

Ron Davies won with 68% of the vote, winning all three sections of Welsh Labour's electoral college formed from the party's Welsh MPs, MEPs approved assembly candidates, the trade unions and the party's members. In his memoirs, Rhodri Morgan wrote: :" he Welsh MPswent heavily for Ron, although I kept majority among the approved panel of Assembly candidates down to 32-22. Of the candidates subsequently elected to the Assembly it was 4-4. The unions went for Ron, even my own union the T&G. The party members' vote split much more evenly, but I didn't maintain the early success I'd had in Aberavon and Swansea

LPs LPS may refer to: Science and medicine * Lipopolysaccharide (Endotoxin) * Levator palpebrae superioris muscle Schools * Leighton Park School in Reading, England * Lexington Public Schools, a school district in Massachusetts, USA * Lincoln P ...

although I did get a majority of the constituency nominations."

Aftermath

Davies would go on to serve until his resignation just over a month later on 29 October 1998, two days after resigning as Secretary of State for Wales on 27 October 1998. He stood down citing "an error of judgement" in agreeing to go for what he said was a meal with a man he had met while walking on

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of ...

in London, which is a well-known gay meeting place. He was mugged at knifepoint. The full details of the incident (which he infamously called a "moment of madness" at the urging of Tony Blair's

Press Secretary A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Dut ...

Alastair Campbell) have never emerged. Morgan went on to fight the next leadership election only to loose to Alun Michael, Morgan himself would go on to be elected unopposed in the third leadership election in three years in February 2000, a position he would hold until December 2009.

References

{{UK Labour Party

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1998 in Wales Welsh Labour leadership election