The result of the race to become the next first minister of Wales will be revealed today.
Jeremy Miles, the current minister for education and Welsh language, and Vaughan Gething, the minister for the economy, have been competing to see who will lead Welsh Labour and the country.
Which of the two has succeeded will be announced this morning, after voting closed at midday on Thursday.
The election of either candidate would be a historic milestone for Wales.
Mr Gething would be the country’s first Black first minister and Mr Miles the first to be openly gay.
Whoever succeeds will be the country’s fifth leader since the Senedd was established in 1999.
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Only Labour members or those who are part of an affiliated organisation, such as a trade union, were able to participate in the vote – meaning about 100,000 people were able to take part.
Mr Gething had the backing of most of the large unions and Lord Kinnock, who led the UK party from 1983 to 1992.
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Mr Miles saw support from the majority of the Labour members of the Senedd.
Mr Drakeford is not expected to stand down immediately, with his final first minister’s questions on Tuesday next week.
Image: Mark Drakeford. Pic: PA
A vote will also need to take place in the Senedd at which opposition groups can put forward their own candidates.
With Labour the largest party, it is unlikely that any other group would take the role.
The handover in power comes as Wales faces a challenging time, with farmers protesting, NHS waiting lists hitting record highs and an economy recovering from the COVID pandemic.
Mr Drakeford accepted there would be issues for his successor to deal with.
He told the PA news agency: “At whatever point anybody takes on this job there will always be an in-tray that is full, and it will always be an in-tray that’s got some challenging issues in it.”
Asked what advice he would give his successor, Mr Drakeford told them to “be bold” and to “push the boundaries”.
He said: “I’ve long argued that the danger for my party having been in power for an extended period in Wales is that we might look as though we’re simply sort of resting on our laurels, just sort of sitting back and just turning the handle on government.
“The Labour Party is ambitious, it is radical, it is reforming, it will grasp the really challenging issues.”
Covering a general election campaign as a journalist can largely be summed up in two words – battle bus.
Not too dissimilar to the coaches that rockstars use for their tours, battle buses are the vehicles each political party uses to transport their leaders, candidates, and advisers around the country during the election campaign.
Sky’s political correspondents have each been following a different party – often joining them on their battle buses.
Here we take you behind the scenes on the campaign trail this week for the Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats.
Conservatives – Darren McCaffrey
Monday, 10 June
Image: Boarding the battle bus
It’s just after 7am on a pretty miserable Monday morning and we’re going to the South East of England today.
Unsurprisingly, by the way, the prime minister is not on the bus – he very rarely is. But we are.
Let’s see what this week holds for not the best start, I think it’s fair to say, for the Conservatives’ campaign…
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Tuesday, 11 June
Image: At Silverstone race track for the Conservative Party manifesto launch
Good morning from Silverstone. It’s Tuesday. It’s the big day for the Conservatives.
I say we’re at Silverstone, the track is just there, but we’re not allowed outside, because apparently there’s a big Hollywood film being filmed with Brad Pitt, so we’re not allowed to film outside.
We’re here for the Tory party manifesto launch, which is happening behind there – but we’re also not allowed to go there at the moment either.
So we’re stuck in this room with tea and lots of other journalists, waiting for Rishi Sunak a little later on.
Image: At Silverstone for the manifesto launch
So it’s all over. The PM has made his speech.
It’s interesting what’s happening here though, in the very far corner, you have to be a little bit quiet, there are lots of journalists who have been briefed about what’s in the speech, so they can ask questions about what’s in the manifesto and they’re being probed on that at the moment by the lobby – that’s what happens at these events.
Wednesday, 12 June
Image: At Kings Cross station
It’s Wednesday morning, we’re heading north to meet the PM in Lincolnshire a bit later this morning.
We’re meant to be on the 9.03am train but it’s been cancelled so we’re all waiting around not quite knowing what’s about to happen or what time we’re going to get there.
This is just a sign of how the campaign goes – a bit of confusion sometimes.
We’re on the way to Grimsby.
The prime minister is on the bus and this is our chance to go to the back of the bus where he is and have a little chat with him – off-camera – but it’s a chance to ask him some questions to see how the campaign is going. Let’s go!
Image: Speaking to Rishi Sunak on the Tory battle bus
Rishi Sunak: “When I’m on the road, I’m an avid games player. I do Connections, Wordle, Sudoku, Solitaire
“I’ve got everyone doing it. Connections is really fun, my kids got me onto it.”
So that’s another visit done.
Frankly, I’m pretty tired. I’ve lost count of the number of visits we’ve done, but me and the bus are going to roll on to the next one – with less than three weeks to go now until polling day.
Labour – Serena Barker-Singh
Image: Doing lives in Grimsby ahead of Sky’s leaders programme
Wednesday, 12 June
We’ve just got to Grimsby.
We’re setting up to do some lives, teeing up what Labour’s launching today and also nodding to the fact that we’ve got our debate later.
Image: On the way to a Labour campaign event
So I just interviewed Keir Starmer – well you get one question – each broadcaster gets one question.
I asked him about tax. It’s quite a difficult day where there are lots of different bits that people can ask.
So I asked whether he’s going to stick to the promises in his manifesto tomorrow once he’s in government.
Image: Interviewing Sir Keir Starmer
Liberal Democrats – Matthew Thompson
Image: At an event with the Disabled Sailing Association in Devon
Tuesday, 11 June
This is the glamour of being on the campaign with the Lib Dems.
It’s mainly hanging around in various states of being freezing cold waiting for Ed Davey to do something completely daft.
Image: At a Lib Dem event in Somerset with Sir Ed Davey (behind, right)
Wednesday, 12 June
Image: In Stratford on Avon
Image: With Sir Ed Davey at a campaign event in Stratford on Avon
“Go to uni, they said… become a journalist, they said… report the news, they said!”
Welcome to Stratford-on-Avon.
This is a part of the world that hasn’t been Liberal since 1906 and you might say it needs something of a sizable swing for the Lib Dems to win it back from the Conservatives.
One man who’s fairly confident of getting that sizable swing, swinging beside me, is Sir Ed Davey.
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Nigel Farage has predicted the Tories will soon descend into “warfare” as a former Conservative minister warned voters about a “Labour elective dictatorship” if they voted for Reform.
The Reform UK leader told The Sunday Telegraph that divisions in the party were only going to “get worse” in the run-up to polling day on 4 July.
Mr Farage was speaking as three polls this week painted a bleak picture for Mr Sunak – and a sunny one for his party.
A poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed the Tories down four points to just 21% of the vote – the lowest by that pollster since the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership in early 2019.
In a boost for Mr Farage, the poll showed Reform UK up three points with 13% of the vote.
A separate Survation poll for Best for Britain, published by The Sunday Times, predicted the Tories would win just 72 seats in the next parliament, compared with 456 for Labour.
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The result would give Labour a majority of 262 seats – far surpassing the landslide Labour achieved by Tony Blair in 1997 – while the Liberal Democrats would pick up 56 seats, Reform seven and the Greens one seat.
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Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, told the Sunday Telegraph that “within a week, you watch… there’ll be warfare within the Conservative Party as there was in the run-up to ’97,” referring to the election when Labour last won a landslide under Mr Blair.
He likened the current divisions in the Conservative Party – chiefly over migration – to splits under former Tory prime minister John Major over joining the Euro.
“In the run-up to ’97, John Major said that he was agnostic about joining the Euro,” he told the newspaper.
“Those who wanted to join the Euro did their own manifesto and raised their own money. It was an absolutely split, divided joke and the same will happen in this election. You watch, it’s coming.
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“You will start to see those MPs, who I agree with on most things, start becoming much more vociferous about their stance as opposed to that of the party. The splits are going to get worse. And to them, I will say: ‘Sorry guys, you are just in the wrong party’.”
It comes as former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who is touted as a future Tory leader, gave an interview with the same newspaper saying he “shares the frustrations” of traditional Tory voters who are tempted to defect to Reform – but that they should stick with Mr Sunak’s party to avoiding handing Labour a landslide.
“I have immense sympathy for those natural Conservatives who feel let down and drawn to Reform,” he said.
Image: Robert Jenrick says he has sympathy for those natural Conservatives who feel drawn to Reform
“Not only do I understand their frustrations, I share many of them.
“The tax burden is too high, the criminal justice system too soft and public services too inefficient. My disagreements with the government on immigration policy meant I resigned from cabinet.”
He added: “But, ultimately, a vote for Reform will only give Labour a blank cheque to take our country back to the 1970s.
“Voting Reform cannot be the answer. It can only bring about a government that increases taxes and immigration. Their success can only weaken the conservative movement. The right cannot unify after the election if there is no meaningful force in parliament to coalesce around.
“Our task is to make conservatives across Britain aware of this peril. If we can do that, and make the case that only a vote for the Conservative Party can prevent a calamitous one-party state come 5 July, then we can avert disaster.”