[2] The conference considered whether to change the voting system for electing a party leader and decided to set up a democracy review, which would report back after Jones had retired.

[4] At the end of May, Carwyn Jones himself asked Lord Murphy to carry out an expedited democracy review and to consult on changes in advance of a special conference.

The result of the election was announced on 6 December, with Carwyn Jones scheduled to formally resign as First Minister of Wales the following week.

[12] Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford was the first candidate to declare he was standing, shortly after Jones announced he would be stepping down.

[13][14] Drakeford started the election campaigning as the favourite, although the academic Roger Awan-Scully suggested he might not remain the frontrunner.

[13][15] Health Secretary Vaughan Gething announced his candidacy on 25 May, with the support of four members of the Assembly, putting himself one nomination short of becoming a candidate.

[17] Minister for Welsh Language & Lifelong Learning Eluned Morgan announced her intention to run on 11 June 2018, declaring herself to be a 'centre-left candidate'.

[21] National party leader Jeremy Corbyn called for diversity in the choices offered to Welsh Labour members.

[22] On 24 September, at the Labour Conference in Liverpool, Carwyn Jones said that if necessary he would nominate Morgan to ensure that there was a woman on the ballot paper, making it clear that he would remain neutral regarding the merit of the candidates.

[27][28] In a speech delivered in his former department at Cardiff University, Drakeford set out the political philosophy he called '21st Century Socialism', in which he suggested the Labour Party in Wales should use its traditional socialist principles to find solutions for the challenges facing modern Wales, such as the housing crisis, climate change and Brexit.

[31] He was also criticised for accepting large campaign donations from a company which had been convicted for environmental infringements, another which is a major property developer in his constituency, and another which is owned by a controversial former local Councillor.