Bench Across Britain: After 100 years of dominance, will Labour retain its grasp on Wales?

The Welsh electorate has travelled in one direction for the last 100 years.

Labour always win more votes and seats than their rivals in Wales but, floating our parliamentary bench on a barge across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, we discover not everything is as tranquil as it seems in this stunning beauty spot.

The 20mph speed limit, wind farms and waiting times on the NHS are all matters raised by people who are not happy with Labour's record in the Senedd.

The first person we meet is Reuben Jones, who works at the local barge hire company adjacent to the aqueduct.

"I'm a transgender person," says Reuben. "I'm very unhappy with the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts at the moment. There are a lot of issues with the education system, a lot of problems with the health care system.

"Neither the Conservatives nor Labour have made a concentrated effort to stand up for trans people in the UK."

'Equal society'

Labour have been criticised by JK Rowling for their stance on Transgender issues. The author accused the party of being "dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain their rights".

Labour have restated their plans to "modernise" the gender transition process, but Reuben feels Plaid Cymru have more to say and "are interested in an equal society and want to stand up for transgender rights".

"I understand in certain women's groups concerns about their safety," Reuben adds. "I do empathise with that. But at the same time, they want to erode the rights of transgender people, which is not the right thing to do either."

Navigating our green bench across Thomas Telford's breathtaking aqueduct, the Llangollen Canal narrows to the width of our boat with a sheer drop on one side down to the River Dee which sparkles innocently 120ft below my feet.

Once across to the other side, we find retired project manager Paul Otteson, from Carmarthenshire, a man who loves the Welsh countryside and is angry about plans to build wind farms in Llandovery, where he is from in South Wales. His main concern seems to be what is going to happen with the cabling from the turbines.

"We know we need electricity, but there has to be a better way of doing it," he says. "Recently, they had a vote in the Senedd, and it was a tie. And the Labour casting vote was against burying cables. So, obviously, Labour are not in my good books at the moment."

The vote was split between Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru who voted for the more expensive option of laying the powerlines underground and Welsh Labour who voted against that, over concerns it would make the project unviable.

'Best ideas'

But walking down the same towpath, retired bed and breakfast owner Hilary Thomas says: "We need more electricity. We need more solar panels. We need more wind farms. We need a tidal barrage in Wales down on the Bristol estuary there. Anything that keeps the cost down."

In her mind, Hilary says she has flip-flopped over whom to vote for and still hasn't decided who has "the best ideas".

There have been 25 years of devolution in Wales and Labour have always been the largest party, so just as in the rest of Britain the incumbent Conservatives are being judged for their record in government, in Wales so too are Labour.

As we continue upstream and speak to others, Labour's record on the NHS comes under attack. Some of their spending is described as "wasteful" but the most common topic of conversation is the roads, which many complain aren't much faster than the waterways since the Welsh government introduced its 20mph speed limits.

'Money wasted'

Reaching the Telford Inn we meet master and lady of the house Robert and Sarah Kinton-Chittenden, who are happy, after serving lunch, to take a rest on our bench, which is now providing extra seating in their beer garden.

"Very comfy. I can see why they nod off in parliament," says Sarah, pressing down on the green upholstery. They talk about lower speed limits impacting on tourism to their pub, failure to tackle immigration and the state of the national health service. "That needs sorting out," says Sarah.

"Massively," agrees Robert.

"Because so much (money) went on this 20 mile-an-hour (speed limit), however much it was. I don't remember the statistics," says Sarah.

"It's £35m," adds Robert.

"Something that could have been put into our national health. You know, it's wasted now," says Sarah.

Robert picks up again: "No doubt they'll spend another £35m putting it back, so that's £70m wasted. It could have gone into hospitals and schools. Ridiculous. What a waste of time."

The Welsh government estimates it would cost £5m to reverse some of the reduced speed limits.

The couple agree with the argument made by Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru that Wales is owed £4bn to compensate for the decision not to build HS2 all the way to Manchester, which would have helped people travelling to North Wales.

"I do think there needs to be more money put into Wales and we're talking an extra few billion because of the lack of high-speed trains," says Robert. "They spent loads of money and it only goes to Birmingham. There's already a train to Birmingham and it runs every day. Pointless. Ridiculous!"

Like several of the people we have spoken to along the river, Sarah and Robert haven't yet decided where their vote will go.

Read more:
Fractured SNP could mean Labour gains in Scotland
Farming community calls for 'more support'
Performers and punters weigh up votes in election circus

Our longboat chugs through a constituency that has been swallowed up in the boundary changes, Clwyd South, now distributed among four other constituencies. A long-time Tory target it was finally stolen from Labour by the Conservatives in 2019.

Polls suggest voters in the countryside region, along with the nearby city of Wrexham, will turn back to Labour - but from our short trip down the canal, we have found quite a number of floating voters.