Hi there paulcj2,
you really should not remove form label elements;
they are required for accessibility purposes. 
Unfortunately, “Wordpress”, in it’s infinite wisdom,
sees no reason to code them correctly by linking
them to their relevant elements. 
Using the “placeholder attribute” as a replacement
instead of an addition is just another example of the
trend to use arty-farty nonsense at the expense of
those that are less fortunate.
Some Further Reading:-
http://webaim.org/techniques/formvalidation/#hiding
coothead