 Despite a swing away from Labour in the 1950 and 1951 General Elections in Britain as a whole, Welsh Labour gained both seats and vote share, pursuing a strategy of extending its appeal from its industrial base in the south and north east of Wales into the rural and Welsh speaking areas where the Liberal Party remained strong.Despite remaining in opposition at Westminster throughout the 1950s, Welsh Labour polled in excess of 50% of the popular vote at each General Election, stacking up apparently impregnable majorities in its south Wales valleys heartlands.Aneurin Bevan, for example, was routinely returned to Parliament with 80% of the vote of his Ebbw Vale constituency, a pattern repeated to a greater or lesser extent in some 15 seats throughout the area.