Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire has the distinction of having the longest constituency name in the United Kingdom. It is a mainly rural seat which contains the county town of Carmarthen, the coastal port of Pembroke and the seaside resort of Tenby. It is a new seat having been created by the boundary commission in 1997. The constituencies it came from have Conservative (Pembroke), Labour and Plaid Cymru (Carmarthen) traditions. In 1997 there was a significant swing from the Conservatives to Labour which gave former Pembroke MP Nick Ainger (Labour) a 9,621 majority.

Labour retained the seat in the 1999 Assembly elections but with a much decreased majority of 1,492 votes. The winner was Christine Gwyther, until recently a controversial Welsh agriculture secretary. who went down in history as the first Assembly Member to suffer a vote of censure against them. In 1999 the Plaid Cymru vote sharply increased in the seat, as it did elsewhere in Wales, enabling them to push the Conservatives into third place with just 18% of the vote. In the June European election Plaid Cymru nominally won the seat but on a much reduced poll. Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire remains one of the many seats in Wales that on paper should stay in Labour control but with the right prevailing political winds could go to either Plaid Cymru or the Conservatives.

Parliamentary Statistics pre-Election 2001

Labour majority 9,621 (22.6%)  Conservative target 181  Possible Plaid Cymru target
MP Nick Ainger
1997 (Turnout 76.4%)
Labour	20,956	49.1%
Conservative	11,335	26.6%
Plaid Cymru	5,402	12.7%
Liberal Democrat	3,516	8.2%
Referendum	1,432	3.4%

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For Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South 2001 Election result - click here.