As it happened: Police and crime commissioner results

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Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has been sacked from her roles as party chair and campaign coordinator following poor results in the English local elections.

The party lost control of several councils and suffered defeat to the Tories in the Hartlepool by-election.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer is expected to reshuffle his frontbench team in the next few days.

Ms Rayner will remain deputy leader of the party as it is a position directly elected by the party members.

She is also expected to be offered another shadow cabinet role.

Read more here.

After the Senedd counts on Friday and Saturday, that brings us to the end of this round of Welsh elections.

Em Gill was covering the Gwent police and crime commissioner election count for the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ifan Morgan Jones of the Nation Cymru website notes that while the Conservative candidate was in front on first preference votes in both North Wales and Dyfed-Powys, they were beaten when the second preference votes from eliminated candidates were counted.

"Looks like Plaid and Labour voters swapping second preferences," he says.

"Makes you wonder what Wales' electoral map would look like with more AV," he adds, referring to the alternative vote method of election.

BBC reporter Iola Wyn sees Dafydd Llywelyn sign up for a second term as police and crime commissioner for the largely rural force area covering mid and west Wales.

Members of the Welsh Parliament have reported facing difficulties when taking their children to their swearing-in ceremonies in Cardiff Bay following Thursday's election.

Hefin David, re-elected as Labour member for Caerphilly, initially tweeted to say it was a "bad start for family friendly working" at the Senedd, and urged a rethink to allow him to take his children on childcare grounds.

He was later granted permission to do so.

Labour colleague Dawn Bowden, who represents Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, tweeted to say that she had had similar issues.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has congratulated Mark Drakeford on leading the party to victory in the Welsh Parliament election.

He said it was "a great result showing socialist values win in Wales".

Wales' first minister had backed Mr Corbyn in two party leadership elections.

Welsh Labour said Mr Drakeford had also been congratulated by the party's current leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

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The new Senedd member for Bridgend says it is a "huge privilege" to be elected for Welsh Labour.

Sarah Murphy is the only woman to have won a seat previously held by a man, after the former first minister Carwyn Jones stood down at this election.

"I'm very proud. A lot of people have put a lot of faith in me now, and a lot of faith in Mark Drakeford and our Welsh government," she told BBC Politics Wales.

"That's why I'm really excited to get started."

Ms Murphy said her party had kept its promises and delivered on its last manifesto - and would do so again.

"We keep our promises, and we are going to keep our promises this time," she insisted.

Policing remains one of the areas governed by Westminster, but it would be wrong to think all the power lies there.

Drill down into: a) who funds the police, b) who decides policing priorities and c) the causes of crime - and suddenly the role of those we elect in Wales is rather important.

Roughly a third (34.5%) of the 2021-22 budgets of Welsh police forces come from the Home Office. Which means the rest was allocated by those holding purse strings here in Wales.

Gwent PoliceCopyright: Gwent Police

In some parts of the country, more than half the funding police forces currently rely on was fixed by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for that area as they set the budget.

They have a say in how much council tax we pay, because a chunk of it - the "precept" - goes to the police.

You can read more details about the role of the PCC here.

The new Conservative MS for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire said devolution was "here to stay" in Wales.

But Sam Kurtz said the challenge now was about "making sure devolution works for Wales".

A Welsh speaker from a farming family, Mr Kurtz said his party had to be "strong in opposition".

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"Making sure that Labour are held to account, and we push our economy and recovery, to make sure coming out of this pandemic Wales is back on its two feet as soon as possible," he said.

Mr Kurtz said he was proud to be a champion for his area.

"In west Wales there is a feeling that there is neglect. We are forgotten about from Cardiff," he told BBC Wales.

"So to step up and be a champion for west Wales and Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire is an incredible honour."

Labour's Alun Michael and the Conservatives' Steve Gallagher remain in the race to become Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

The remaining candidates have been eliminated, and their voters' second preferences will now be used to determine the winner.

Mr Michael was the incumbent commissioner, having been first elected in when the post was created in 2012 and re-elected in 2016.

The final result is expected later.

While Labour in England is licking its wounds after losing the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives who also made significant gains in local elections, Welsh Labour appears to be living in a parallel universe.

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While UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is facing all sorts of questions about his effectiveness, Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford is riding the crest of a wave.

We look at why the Welsh arm of the party was so much more successful.

Another new face heading to the Senedd is Plaid Cymru's Sioned Williams.

While she failed in her bid to become the new member of the Senedd (MS) for Neath, she was elected on the regional list for South Wales West.

"I'm extremely proud of the very positive campaign we fought, based on transformational ideas we had for Wales - and that work is ongoing," she told the BBC's Politics Wales programme.

Plaid CymruCopyright: Plaid Cymru

But she admitted the overall result for Plaid in the election had been "disappointing".

"It is also a disappointing result for Wales," she claimed.

However, Ms Williams said the new Plaid Senedd members heading to Cardiff have "fire in our bellies".

"We're going to work together to hold this Welsh government to account," she said.

The police and crime commissioner election count in Gwent has also moved to the next phase.

It is now between the incumbent, Labour's Jeff Cuthbert, and Conservative Hannah Jarvis, with the other candidates eliminated in the first count.

All final results are expected later this afternoon.

Conservative Pat Astbury and Labour's Andy Dunbobbin are through to the run-off to be the new North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner.

The other candidates, with fewer votes, have been eliminated and those votes will now be allocated to the top candidates, according to those voters' second preferences.

The previous commissioner, Plaid Cymru's Arfon Jones, decided not to stand again.

The final result is expected later.

The second and final phase of counting to elect a police and crime commissioner in the Dyfed-Powys Police area is taking place.

Conservative Jon Burns is through to the final round against the current commissioner, Plaid Cymru's Dafydd Llywelyn, after the candidates with fewer votes were eliminated.

There were just 900 votes between the two remaining candidates.

Conservative Jon Burns is ahead with 69,112 votes while Plaid Cymru's Dafydd Llywelyn has 68,208 votes from the first preference count.

The final result hangs on how many voters, whose first choice of candidate has now been eliminated, placed either option as their second choice.

The result should be coming later this afternoon.

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