SHADOW Welsh Secretary Peter Hain claims that Labour have bounced back from their General Election defeat — with new members "flooding" into the party.

The Labour MP for Neath said the party was ready to fight and win again.

And now, with a new leader finally in place in the shape of Ed Miliband, the party will hope to start taking on the Tory-Lib Dem coalition with all guns blazing.

He said: "Our ideas, our vision, our values will never be defeated.

"Yes we lost the election and there's no pretending that wasn't a terrible setback. But we stopped the Tories winning.

"And we have immediately bounced back, with council by-election victories right across the land, tens of thousands of new party members flooding to join and more support in the opinion polls. This is not a beaten party. This is a party ready to fight and to win again."

Mr Hain has criticised the ConDem coalition's proposals to reduce the deficit and cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 — which would slash the number of MPs in Wales from 40 to 30.

He said: "The Government's policies are not only harsh and unjust, they are plain wrong.

"The deficit has to be cut. But not like this, not so fast or so deep.

"The Tory Lib-Dem Government is not cutting like this because it needs to.

"It is cutting like this because it wants to. Cameron and Clegg want citizens left to fend for themselves."

Mr Hain accused the Government of "destroying the fairness at the heart of our parliamentary democracy" with their proposals to equalise the size of MPs' constituencies, which could result in every seat in Wales being re-drawn.

He said: "Their new legislation changes every constituency in the land in a way that is fair only to the Conservative party.

He added: "Over the generations boundary commissions have worked impartially, taking proper account of local views, of community identity, of rurality and sparsity.

"The Government has abandoned this fair, practical and sensible system for a new one that is unfair, impractical and arrogant.

"Wales will lose three times the proportion of MPs as the average for the rest of the United Kingdom — a reduction in Wales's voice in Parliament of a full quarter from 40 to 30.

"In the vast rural areas of Mid and West Wales, four constituencies covering hundreds of square miles will become two monster ones, each thousands of square miles in size.

"You can understand why the Tories want to fix the boundaries in a way that would benefit them.

"But what is most outrageous about their plans, what is totally unforgivable and totally unjustifiable, is that the new boundaries will be drawn up on a register excluding more than 3.5 million eligible voters, predominantly the young, poor and black and minority ethnic social groups.

"And at the same time Nick Clegg said he wanted to give prisoners the vote.

"So some of the most vulnerable people in society will be deprived of a vote at the same time as the Deputy Prime Minister wants convicted murders, rapists and paedophiles to get one."

Locally, South Wales MPs have also reported a surge in membership to the party.

In Swansea West, Geraint Davies claimed membership had gone up by 10 per cent.

The Labour MP told the Post: "In regards to Labour Party membership, Swansea West has had a 10 per cent increase in members since the General Election, many of whom have previously voted Lib Dem but now feel let down by the coalition.

"This includes a number of former Lib Dem members and activists who campaigned for them during the General Election.

Gower MP Martin Caton has also reported a rise in members. He claimed the new recruits fell into three distinct groups.

"Firstly people who were always strong supporters but never joined but who were persuaded to do so when we were canvassing in the campaign," Mr Caton said.

"Secondly people who had become disillusioned with the Labour government over particular issues, such as Iraq, but who saw the Tory-led administration with its massive cuts programme as something they wanted to actively fight against and thirdly people who voted Lib Dem and are outraged that their vote has helped deliver a right-wing Tory Government."

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