The public have spoken, the votes have been counted and the Labour Party has swept all the seats in Gwent and won a huge majority across the UK.

The UK will now have a stable government, which should be good for investment - especially with uncertainty in France, the United States and elsewhere, and with the same party in power in Wales and Westminster, there is an opportunity for both to work together to improve people's lives.

That's the promise, at least, and there are sensible arguments why that could happen.

But dig beneath the surface and these results pose big questions, locally and nationally.

Labour has won big, but without a big share of the vote. More accurately, the Tories have lost big. Every other party (except the SNP) have benefitted. The Lib Dems, Greens, Reform, Plaid Cymru but most of all Labour.  

Labour won every seat in Gwent, including Monmouthshire, where Catherine Fookes unseated Welsh Secretary David TC Davies. The Tories were wiped out in Wales, with former secretaries of state dropping like flies. Labour even won in Pembrokeshire. 

In three of the Gwent seats - Torfaen, Newport West & Islwyn, and Newport East - Reform finished second. They were a close third in Caerphilly, edged out by a well-known local Plaid Cymru councillor.

The turnout was down significantly across Gwent, falling below 50% in several seats. The lowest turnout was Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, where just 43% of people voted.  This seat had no Reform candidate and it's likely if there had been, they would have come second here too and turnout might have been a little better. 

The Reform vote and the low turnout suggest that there is a large number of people in Gwent who feel very let down by the bigger parties. If nothing changes, this number will grow.

Labour has swept Gwent but many people still do not believe their lives will be any better. 

Labour will be celebrating today, but once the parties are over, they need to look seriously at why they, even with the Tories so unpopular, they haven't been able to reach these voters (or non-voters). Otherwise we are storing up bigger problems for the future.