Party's Welsh leader Carwyn Jones says Labour has taken 30 constituencies out of 60 with 'other parties in disarray'

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Welsh Labour leader, Carwyn Jones, said the party has won enough votes to govern in the Cardiff assembly.

Labour has taken 30 of the 60 seats – one short of the number it needed to take overall control of the assembly.

But Jones said "disarray" among the other parties meant 30 seats was enough to govern.

It is not yet known whether Labour will go it alone or try to forge an alliance with another of the parties. Senior figures said the party would consider the best way to proceed over the weekend.

Labour enjoyed particularly good wins in Cardiff, taking one seat from the Liberal Democrats and one from the Tories. Across Wales, the Conservatives took 14 seats, Plaid Cymru 11 and the Lib Dems five.

Speaking at the Welsh Labour headquarters in Cardiff, Jones said: "What we've done today is, I believe, gained the largest share of the vote ever in an assembly election. Given the disarray in the other parties we know that's enough to govern.

"If we get an extra seat or two in the north, all well and good, but the one thing the people of Wales have said very clearly to us today is they want Labour to represent them, they want Labour to stand up for them and they want Labour to lead the next Welsh government."

He stopped short of saying Labour would govern alone with 30 seats, but seemed to imply that it could.

It has been a disappointing election for the Lib Dems and the nationalists Plaid Cymru. Nick Bourne, the Conservative leader at the assembly, lost his seat. But the Tories had a decent set of results and are set to be the second biggest party, displacing Plaid.

The first result to be returned provided a boost for Labour confidence as the party won back Blaenau Gwent, once a heartland but in the hands of an independent in recent years after a row over all-women shortlists being imposed by the national party. The Lib Dems secured only 367 votes, far behind the BNP, which took almost 1,000.

The gain of Llanelli from Plaid's Helen Mary Jones, the nationalist party's deputy leader and one of its most recognisable faces, was another good Labour result.

Jones said Labour had managed to turn the election into a "referendum on what the Conservative government is doing in Westminster".

There were terrific results for Labour in the capital. The party took Cardiff Central, where it beat the Liberal Democrats. Party activists believe Cardiff Central is the sort of place Labour needs to do well in if it is to win power back throughout the UK.

There was also success for Labour in Cardiff North, where Julie Morgan, the wife of the former first minister Rhodri Morgan, defeated the Conservatives.

The first black assembly member, Labour's Vaughan Gething, was also returned in the capital, winning handsomely in Cardiff South and Penarth.

He said: "There is a very real difference between us and the Tories. A real difference in values, principles and action."

"People want us to provide an alternative, not just for Wales but for the rest of the UK."

The results are bound to put the leadership of Plaid's Ieuan Wyn Jones under threat. He was facing questions about his position even before the first counts started.

The former Labour Welsh secretary Ron Davies, now a Plaid member, failed to win in Caerphilly and expressed frustration that the election was fought on UK-wide issues rather than Welsh ones.

The Welsh Lib Dem leader, Kirsty Williams, hung on to her Brecon and Radnorshire seat but the party lost the Montgomeryshire constituency to the Conservatives. It was won in 2007 by Mick Bates, who left the party after being convicted for a drunken attack on a paramedic.

Williams said: "There's been a big challenge for us, with our colleagues in Westminster in power for the first time. We're constantly being asked about the effects of the coalition impacting on our politics here."

Lord German, a former Liberal Democrat leader in Wales, said it was worrying that junior coalition partners – Plaid at the assembly and the Lib Dems at Westminster – had been punished by the voters.

The Lib Dems lost ground in urban areas where they have worked hard in the last few years.

Labour won 26 seats at the last election, and has governed in coalition with Plaid for the last four years.