09 May 2003
Labour has held on to power in the devolved administrations, strengthening its position in the Welsh Assembly but losing six seats in the Scottish Parliament.
Welsh Labour leader Rhodri Morgan said Labour would govern alone after his party won 30 of the 60 seats, ending a three-year power-sharing government with the Liberal Democrats.
'I am not proposing to talk to any other party, and we don't have any plans to do that,' Morgan said.
Plaid Cymru was the big loser on May 1, with its seats down from 17 to 12. It is now just one ahead of the Conservatives.
The LibDems kept their six seats while deselected Labour AM John Marek was re-elected by his Wrexham constituents as an independent.
In Edinburgh, Labour remained the largest party but its seats fell to 50, forcing it to seek another coalition with the LibDems, who failed to improve on their 1999 total of 17.
The winners in Scotland were independents: Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party won five seats to take six overall, and the Greens increased theirs from one to seven. In a victory for protest politics, retired GP Jean Turner won the Strathkelvin and Bearsden constituency on a 'save Stubhill Hospital' ticket.
Former Labour MSP Dennis Canavan kept his Falkirk West constituency as an independent, and former SNP member Margo MacDonald was returned as an independent list candidate for the Lothian region. John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens' Unity Party was elected on the regional list for Central Scotland.
PFmay2003
