Labour's grip on power in Wales was slipping last night, as the focus for control of its Assembly shifted to the prospect of a rainbow alliance led by Plaid Cymru.
Liberal Democrats walked out of coalition talks with Labour, saying they were more interested in pursuing negotiations with Conservatives and Plaid Cymru.
With Plaid Cymru the second largest party in the Cardiff chamber, it could leave Gordon Brown as Prime Minister while Nationalists lead administrations in both Scotland and Wales.
Labour was left with 26 of the 60 seats in the Cardiff chamber after the May 3 election, four down on its previous position in a precarious minority administration. Its leader, Rhodri Morgan, admitted the result was a "clip round the ear" from the electorate.
He claimed only Labour has the legitimacy to lead the administration, in an echo of a claim made also by SNP leader Alex Salmond earlier this month when he was arguing against the possibility of a unionist alliance against the SNP as largest party at Holyrood.
He could do what Mr Salmond is now attempting, by trying to run another minority administration, but having attempted that, he has made it clear he wants to avoid the uncertainty of that.
As the initiative slipped away from Labour, Mr Morgan conceded: "We don't have a natural right to govern.
We have to accept that in the verdict of the electorate on May 3, we got a clip round the ear. We know that and that's why we are seeking a partner."
It appeared last night that Mr Morgan's best hope of staying on and stopping Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones becoming First Minister is to convince the Nationalists to support a minority Labour administration.
The Nationalist party has 15 Assembly members, Tories have 12, LibDems six and there is one independent.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article