First minister spent election result night at Premier Inn after forgetting his keys

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First minister spent election result night at Premier Inn after forgetting his keys

Wales' new first minister had to book himself into a Premier Inn as his party celebrated its historic election victory – after forgetting his flat keys.

Rhun ap Iorwerth was on his way from an election count in north Wales to Cardiff last Friday when he realised he'd left the keys at his main home in Anglesey, some 200 miles (321km) from the Welsh capital.

Fresh from declaring a "new dawn" beckoned for Wales but unable to get into his Cardiff flat late at night, ap Iorwerth then spent the evening in the budget hotel chain's modest surroundings.

A request for his father to bring the keys down, however, meant they ended up celebrating together outside the Senedd the next morning.

His father, former teacher and Welsh language campaigner Edward Morus Jones, was pictured embracing the Plaid leader on the steps of the parliament building on Saturday as crowds of supporters came to celebrate the election result.

Rob Norman/Plaid Cymru

On Tuesday, when ap Iorwerth was elected to lead Welsh government, his father told ITV that he felt "extremely proud and very glad to be alive" to see his son become first minister.

"I can't hide the fact that I'm elated, but at the same time finding it very difficult to realise what's happening around [me]," he said.

"It's a sort of cloud that we've been in since Friday."

Premier Inn and Plaid Cymru have been asked for comment.

Getty Images

Last Thursday's historic vote saw Plaid win 43 seats and Reform UK come second with 34, pushing Labour into third with just nine seats in the expanded 96-member Senedd – ending a century-long run of election success in Wales.

No overnight counting of votes meant it wasn't until Friday evening that the result, which saw Plaid become Wales' largest party, was confirmed.

Ap Iorwerth, who also represents the constituency of Bangor Conwy Mon in north Wales, lives on the island of Anglesey with his wife, Llinos, with whom he has three grown up children.

But, like many Senedd politicians, he also has a property in Cardiff for the days he is working at the parliament, and now at the Welsh government's headquarters in the city.

While the UK prime minister has Downing Street, and the first minister of Scotland has Bute House in Edinburgh, there is no official residence for the first minister of Wales.

A lack of an official residence for Welsh first ministers was questioned following protests outside former Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford's Cardiff home.

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