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The 2017 General Election could go down as the one where Labour lost its dominance in Wales for the first time in 86 years.

The party currently holds 25 of the country’s 40 Parliamentary constituencies, so if it dips below 20 it will win less than half the seats in Wales for the first time since 1931.

That was the year Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald left the party and together with some colleagues formed a “National Government” with the Conservatives.

Professor Roger Scully of Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre thinks such an outcome is distinctly possible.

He said: “The decision to hold a general election is a cold and calculated call from a Prime Minister who realises the strength of her party’s position and is prepared to go for a bigger majority in a ruthless manner.

“The Tories start the election campaign in a very strong position indeed and it is difficult to see how they will not increase the number of seats they hold by a significant number.

“In Wales there is a very real possibility that Labour will be left after the election with less than half the Welsh seats – something that until the party’s current state would not have been seen as possible.

“Even in the 1983 landslide won by Margaret Thatcher, Labour still won the majority of seats in Wales.”

1. Ynys Mon - vulnerable to Plaid

Sitting MP: Albert Owen

Labour majority in 2015: 229

% majority: 0.7%

A constituency that has stuck with incumbents for as long as they’ve wanted to stay around, Ynys Mon has kept electing the hard working Albert Owen since 2001 despite predictions at every election that he would lose it to Plaid Cymru.

Having scraped back in 2015 with a majority of just 229 votes, this could be the time his luck runs out – but only if Plaid pick a decent candidate.

2. Bridgend - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: Madeleine Moon

Labour majority 2015: 1,927

% majority: 4.9%

Bridgend has stayed loyal to Labour in recent decades, apart from being held by the Conservatives for a single term between 1983 and 1987.

At National Assembly level, Carwyn Jones’ high profile as First Minister has helped him turn it into a safe seat, but Ms Moon is not as prominent a figure. Before being elected an MP in 2005, she actually lost her seat on Bridgend council.

With a majority of less than 2,000, her seat is vulnerable to a national swing of the kind the Conservatives have been showing in opinion polls.

3. Wrexham - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: Ian Lucas

Labour majority 2015: 1,831

% majority: 5.6%

Ian Lucas has held the seat since 2001 when his long-serving predecessor John Marek stepped down after being elected as an AM two years before. But Dr Marek subsequently left Labour after a row with his local party and won one election as an Independent before losing to Lesley Griffiths, the current AM.

Wrexham Labour Party has had further internal troubles, with a significant number of its councillors quitting to set up a breakaway group.

None of this is helpful in a Parliamentary seat that has become increasingly marginal and where the Conservatives could finally seize a seat they have eyed up for years.

4. Clwyd South - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: Susan Elan Jones

Labour majority 2015: 2,402

% majority: 6.9%

In 1997 Martyn Jones won the newly established seat with a majority of 13,810 over the defeated Tory candidate Boris Johnson, who later resurrected his career to become London Mayor and now Foreign Secretary.

In every general election since, Labour’s majority has progressively decreased to what it stands at now, which seems pretty precarious in current circumstances.

Susan Elan Jones, who took over as MP in 2010, does not have an especially high profile and is certainly vulnerable to a Tory surge.

5. Delyn - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: David Hanson

Labour majority 2015: 2,930

% majority: 7.8%

Created in 1983, the seat was held for two terms by the Conservative MP Keith Raffan before he lost it to the present Labour MP David Hanson.

Mr Hanson is a well-regarded former Minister who held a succession of portfolios under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

After winning the seat narrowly in 1992, he increased his majority significantly before it fell back in successive elections to 2,272 in 2010 before staging a modest increase to 2,930 in 2015.

This is another marginal seat that could fall if the Conservatives’ performance matches their polling.

6. Alyn & Deeside - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: Mark Tami

Labour majority 2015: 3,343

% majority: 8.1%

Alyn & Deeside has been held by Labour at every election since the seat was created in 1983, but there have been significant variations in the party’s majority.

Arguably the least Welsh of the country’s 40 constituencies, people look across the border to Chester, Liverpool and Manchester rather than Cardiff. Former trade union official Mark Tami has held the seat since 2001. His majority dipped below 3,000 in 2010 but rose again in 2015. It’s the fourth North Wales seat that could fall to the Tories on a bad day for Labour.

7. Newport West - vulnerable to the Conservatives

Sitting MP: Paul Flynn

Labour majority 2015: 3,510

% majority: 8.7%

The Conservatives won the seat on its creation in 1983, but lost it to Paul Flynn four years later. He’s held it ever since.

Even at 82 it would be a surprise if he stood down, and a bigger surprise if he was defeated by the Conservatives, despite polling evidence that he could go if there is a uniform swing away from Labour.

Admired across the political spectrum as a tenacious campaigner, he was one of the earliest MPs to embrace social media despite his advanced years. Last year he even did a stint as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, although his greatest triumphs have been as a backbencher who won’t let an evasive Minister off the hook.

8. Cardiff Central - vulnerable to the Lib Dems

Sitting MP: Jo Stevens

Labour majority in 2015: 4,921

% majority: 12.9%

Two years ago, Labour's Jo Stevens won this with a handsome majority of nearly 5,000.

Yet this is a seat that the Liberal Democrats have held before. And it is in a city, Cardiff, that voted heavily to Remain in last June's Brexit referendum.

In last year's Assembly election, the Lib Dems pushed Labour much closer, losing by just 817 votes. If the Lib Dems run a heavily Brexit focused campaign, as they did in London's Richmond constituency, the seat could be fascinating constest.

Election expert Roger Scully's view

Prof Scully said: “It makes a lot of political sense for Theresa May to call a general election.

"The conservatives are a long way ahead in the opinion polls and she can claim she needs a new mandate in advance of Brexit negotiations to strengthen the Government’s hand.

“It’s also the case that the negotiations themselves are likely to throw up difficulties. By having an election before they begin, she avoids the possibility of a difficult election later.

"Her current majority is small and a bigger majority will bolster her position.”

Prof Scully said he expected to see something of a surge in support for the Liberal Democrats in what will inevitably be an election dominated by Brexit.

In Wales he expects a lively contest in Cardiff Central, where Labour’s Jo Stevens took the seat from the Lib Dems in 2015.

The constituency voted solidly to remain in the EU and the Liberal Democrats are likely to exploit Labour’s divisions over Brexit, although Ms Stevens has been a strong supporter of staying in the EU and resigned as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in order to vote against the triggering of Article 50.

How turnout has varied

The academic said there was a possibility there would be a dip in turnout in Wales: “We’ve had a general election, an Assembly election, a referendum and are coming up to council elections and another general election all in the space of 25 months.

“It may well be that we see a bit of voter fatigue, and turnout going down a bit.”

Meanwhile the parties – or rather all but one – are in the position of having to select candidates in a very short time frame.

The expectation had been that the next general election would be fought on new boundaries, but they were not due to be voted on in Parliament before autumn 2018.

A Welsh Labour source said: “All constituency parties will be asked to start the process of selecting candidates very quickly.

“Of course the boundary changes have been a consideration in not selecting candidates up until now, but there has also been an understanding that because of the commitment required, potential candidates don’t want to be selected too soon. Some of them give up their jobs to become full time candidates, and people often can’t afford to do that a long way in advance.”

The process could be complicated by a row over how candidates should be selected. Pro-Corbyn members of Labour’s national executive committee want there to be “trigger ballots” – a mechanism that would force sitting Labour MPs to offer themselves for re-selection by their local parties. This could result in some MPs being deselected by parties that, for example, see them as not left-wing enough. Those on the right of the party fear that controversies of this kind could add to the portrayal of Labour as split and unfit for office.

The Conservatives will have to select candidates in the seats in Wales they don’t currently hold, as will Plaid Cymru.

Plaid leader Leanne Wood said she had not ruled out standing for Parliament in Rhondda – the seat she won from Labour in last year’s Assembly election.

A Plaid source said: “Leanne hasn’t ruled it in, and she hasn’t ruled it out.

"She will talk with people in her local party. Obviously Plaid will want to field the best candidate we can, but we have a fine set of council candidates to choose from as well.”

Under party rules, if Ms Wood stood against sitting Labour MP Chris Bryant and beat him, she would have to resign her Assembly seat, triggering a by-election.

Ukip, which currently holds no seats in Westminster, is planning to put up candidates in every constituency in England and Wales, its Assembly leader Neil Hamilton told BBC Wiltshire, where he lives. He intends to stand himself in Carmarthen East & Dinefwr.

The party that can afford to take things relatively easy for a brief period at least is the Welsh Liberal Democrats, who decided to select a full slate of stand-by candidates on the off-chance that a snap general election would be called.

Some people have a talent for thinking ahead.