Welsh Secretary Mr Paul Murphy, celebrating Labour's win in 34 out of 40 Welsh seats, said: "This is a fabulous result. It shows we are still very much the party of Wales. The Welsh Nationalists simply have not made the sort of inroads they claimed they were going to make.
"The Conservative Party is in disarray and highly unlikely to make any sort of sensible recovery during the course of next year. They are a meaningless force in Wales."