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'Arrogant' Reform Wales branch chairman slammed over 'ignorant' climate change claims

By Emily Price
Interim branch chair for Carmarthenshire Reform Gareth Beer

Emily Price

A Reform Wales branch chairman has been branded "ignorant and arrogant" after making incorrect claims about climate change online. 

Interim branch chair for Carmarthenshire Gareth Beer described Met Office scientists as "peak clown" following the publication of a new study which found that sea levels in the UK are rising faster than the global average.

The Annual State of the UK Climate report found that from 1993 to 2024, the UK’s sea level had risen by 13.4cm - higher than the global estimate of 10.6cm.

Projected sea level change contributions - Image: National Oceanography Centre

Experts warned that many coastal parts of Britain could be completely underwater by 2050.

The study, co-authored by the National Oceanography Centre, also showed how climate change is making Britain hotter and wetter.

It was based on observations dating back as far as the 19th century.

Met Office climate scientist and lead author of the report Mike Kendon said it provided "hard evidence" of the growing impact of climate change in the UK.

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'Unfit'

But Gareth Beer - a local businessman and Kidwelly Town councillor - disputed the work of experts and branded the Met Office "unfit for purpose".

In a post published to X on Tuesday (July 15), Mr Beer said: "This has got to be the daftest thing I've heard in ages!

"Peak clown. How can the sea level be rising faster in the UK, water finds its own level, have we got a fence around us, uniquely more pull from the moon???

"Met Office unfit for purpose!"

The Reform Chair's post received hundreds of views, likes, and shares.

We sent Mr Beer's post to the scientists behind the new study and asked them to explain in simple terms why his theory that sea-levels do not vary globally cannot be true.

Projected sea level change contributions - Image: National Oceanography Centre

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Sea level rise around the globe is not uniform. Different parts of the ocean are warming at different rates.

"Warming causes thermal expansion and therefore changes the density of sea water so rates of rise will not be uniform at this large spatial scale.

"Wind, evaporation and precipitation are also factors making it extremely complex.

"An additional complication is that sea levels are affected by changes in gravitational field due to ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets.

"There is also vertical movement of the land surface. So there are multiple reasons why it is not uniform across the globe."

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Warming

Co-author of the report Dr Joanne Williams from the National Oceanography Centre agreed with the Met Office's statement but wished to add: "Parts of the ocean are warming more quickly than others, and as ice melts the extra mass of water has to distribute around the globe.

"Changes in currents also affect the sea-level in different places.  So it's not surprising that there are regional patterns.

"This is one of the reasons that we continue to monitor sea-level rise in many places, so as to be able to make appropriate local plans for adaptation, and to take account of other local factors such as land movement and changing tides."

The National Oceanography Centre also provided Nation.Cymru with graphics to illustrate how several factors cause sea-level to vary globally.

Reform's Gareth Beer came within 1,505 votes of unseating the sitting Labour MP for Llanelli, Dame Nia Griffith, at last year’s general election.

He is the husband of Michelle Beer, a Reform councillor who won the party its first seat on Carmarthenshire County Council in May.

Mr Beer is expected to make a bid to stand at the Senedd election next year.

'Complex issues'

Former Welsh Government minister and Llanelli MS Lee Waters said the Reform hopeful's climate change theory showed that he is "unfit to deal with complex issues".

He said: "This man came within a thousand votes of being an MP and could very well be in the Senedd next year.

"He thinks he knows more than the National Oceanography Centre and the Met Office.

"His comments are both ignorant and arrogant.

"He's playing to a climate-denying echo chamber on social media but if he's elected he'll have the responsibility of voting on laws and on budgets and he's shown that's he unfit to deal with the complex issues that face us"

Incorrect

We contacted Mr Beer via his Kidwelly Town Council email address and asked him why he was sharing inaccurate claims about climate change online.

Our email pinged back because an "incorrect email address" had been used. 

We later discovered that the email address for Mr Beer on Kidwelly Town Council’s website had been incorrect for almost a year.

It has since been updated.

Nation.Cymru contacted Mr Beer again via his private email address and asked:

*Why have you made up these false claims about climate change?
*Do you think you know more than the scientists who carried out the study?
*Will you be making a bid to stand at the Senedd election next year?
*Do you think it's important for elected officials to be honest about climate change?

We did not receive a response.

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46 comments

Hal

Perhaps he can explain the thinking of his political colleagues in the states who simultaneously believe that eight billion people burning oil can't affect the climate yet the Dems can cause Texan floods at the drop of a hat. That's what you call peak clown.

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Jeff

Andrea Jenkins is in full denial and climate change denier (recent interview). Mind you not a lot there between the ears that impresses anyone except reform. And Tice, have to wonder why all that oil and coal money is going their way. It is not to make the world a better place, it is to make a very small select few even richer at our expense and reform are happy to trash the UK for the people that fund them. Not make the UK and world a better place for us, very important.

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David J

Dear oh dear, I hope they don't let Beer out on his own, or allow him to play with scissors... on the other hand, that might not be a bad idea...

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Jeff

Brave or stupid to demonstrate your ignorance. Or both. If he is going to call it then produce his own research to counter just about every climate scientist going. Of course he wont.

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Erisian

Dunning Kruger effect in action again I see. KIndergarten 'Science' vs. The Met Office. No contest.

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Amir

I think he is unfit to be a human being.

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Gwyn Hopkins

Farage has on several occasions indicated that he is a climate change denier and doesn’t want the UK government to take the only effective action that will combat it – “net zero”. It is Reform UK’s policy in spite of the fact that scientific evidence for climate change (increase in global temperatures), mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels by humanity, has been absolutely conclusive and overwhelming for many decades. One wonders whether Nigel Farage is also a “flat-earth” man, as well as his followers.         

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John Ellis

There are only two varieties of Reform UK supporters: there are the ghouls and there are the fools.

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Amir

I wonder which one Adrian is.

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Fanny Hill

Leave the poor dab alone. He’s got enough problems being a Reformer!

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John Ellis

Maybe we might ask him?

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Saeth

Have fun reading, silly Adrian! https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/has-nigel-farage-quietly-forced-reform-uk-to-u-turn-on-climate-change-denial/

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Saeth

Here's another one incase you go into full denial (no pun intended). https://www.desmog.com/2025/02/18/not-a-scientist-net-zero-critic-nigel-farage-admits-climate-ignorance/

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Richard Jenkins

Here you go! https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/has-nigel-farage-quietly-forced-reform-uk-to-u-turn-on-climate-change-denial/

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TheWoodForTheTrees

Reform are intent on dumbing down the entire country, all so they can manipulate people more easily. They are intent on setting us back decades in so many ways. Their goal is ignorant serfdom for the masses. They must be called out each and every time they make ridiculous claims. Very loudly and very publicly.

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Amir

Even a jellyfish can see Farage is pro oil. And there are 2 pieces of evidence submitted which I will remind you of whenever you next ever post any further comments.

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Y Cymro

So according to that Reform UK clown Gareth Beer, the hole in the O-Zone layer was a conspiracy and not the cause of CFCs, or is the rise in sea temperature not a threat to those low lying nations or the cause of weather extremes, but a cash cow for woke snowflakes and tree huggers. These Reform UK morons are highly dangerous akin to Antivaxers who peddle lies & conspiracy theories on social media to those naive enough to believe their misinformation and disinformation. This isn't a game. Once past the tipping point there's no return. Areas of Wales are already suffering weather extremes with both drought conditions causing wildfires and severe rainfall resulting in former coal tips spilling their contents down onto the valley floor below putting lives at risk. It makes me so angry that Welsh voters are giving these fools credibility. If you want to punish the Welsh Government for 26 wasted devolution years or not standing up for Wales against UK Labour's Anti-Wales agenda, do it by voting for parties with our best interests at heart not Nigel Farage's. Reform UK have no interest in Wales, Welsh devolution, or do they advocate more powers to the Senedd, even though in their previous guises as UKip and Brexit Party argued how sovereignty and power was best served in Britain not the EU, the very same who want to abolish the Senedd without a vote and deny Wales the same right, sovereignty and powers of state that are rightly ours.

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Fanny Hill

You could have tried contacting him at his business’s contact address and spoken to his part time office manager, Mrs Beer. I won’t give his business free publicity by naming it, but it doesn’t appear to have a website or phone number. It only appears to exist on Companies House website.

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Geraint

About ten years ago the Swiss and German governments built a bridge over the Rhine at Laufenburg. Germany uses the North sea as a base to calculate heights and Switzerland uses the Mediterranean as the base for its calculations. As they were building the bridge they realised that the difference in heights between the two roadways was over 50 cms which is proof that the level between the two connected bodies of water are different and Mr Beer is wrong about sea levels all being the same.

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Brychan

Nothing to do with global sea level. Silly mistake when using mean sea level. The mean sea level in Pembrokeshire is higher than the mean sea around Gwynedd. The effect of the Atlantic drift current. An effect that pre-dates recent and historical warming. Relies on the velocity of the current.

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Ap Kenneth

The actual report can be downloaded at: https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/joc.70010 but I could not find in the report the statement made in the above article "Experts warned that many coastal parts of Britain could be completely underwater by 2050." This report does not appear to make any similar statement. So where is that coming from? Climate Central? If so their maps are very very simplistic. I do not believe that the evidence shows a linear trend, it does show an accelarating trend. The biggest threat in the UK is this slowly increasing mean sea levels combined with spring tides, high river levels and storm events. These will test flood defences more and more and will find weakness, just see the closure record of the Thames Barrier over its lifetime. There are seaside towns, such as Aberystwyth (when standing on the prom looking back to the station and you can see it is downhill), which really are very vulnerable. As are levels such as those on the Wentloog between Cardiff and Newport or Kinmel Bay and Rhyl. But to dismiss this, as gareth Beer does, just because he has not noticed any changes is not a good way to make decisions in a complex World.

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Fanny Hill

You’d think Gareth Beer would have more sense considering he lives in Kidwelly by Sea.

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Jeff

Himalayan glacier let loose a massive flood the other day, another one. Greenland is in a precarious position and with warmer oceans there are increased risks of storms that used to be once in a hundred years now rolling very often and concerns that salinity is really messing things up in the Antarctic and Artic ocean getting warmer far faster than it should be, guess where the ice is. Extrapolating a single measurement without looking at other bits, that a good look to the future? To ignore all that is going on is really dense. Word of caution as well, Trump is yanking all US science in this area (and everywhere else), its info will get less and as scientist's are forced out, less warning, less data. Interesting read. https://climate.copernicus.eu/why-are-europe-and-arctic-heating-faster-rest-world Oh yeah, disputing well regarded orgs is something the GOP are good at. Wonder why reform are doing the same.

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Ap Kenneth

The strange think with Greenland is gravity. As Greenland melts sea level drops around Greenland itself and further out, Icelands, Faroes etc but in the UK sea level stays roughly where it is and then it increases largely in the Tropics and the Southern hemisphere. We cop it when that destabilises Antartica and we then get drowned! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/sep/12/greenland-antarctic-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise-science-climate

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John Ellis

Quite wrong there; I'm always interested in matters around just why folk think as they do.

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Llyn

Like all climate change deniers he is unwilling to change his behaviour for his children and grandchildren and wishes to ignore scientific fact for his own selfish purposes. This from a fanatical Pentecostal protestant who believe that we are facing the end times and environmental destruction is simply a sign of god's work.

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Fanny Hill

I'm wouldn't knock anyone for having a faith except when they use it for political ends or persecute others, but you'd think that Gareth Beer and his wife would have a bit more respect for God's handiwork.

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Llyn

If you're not going to do anything about climate change and want to stop anything will assist in the fight against climate change (solar power, net zero) and you take millions from climate change denying organisations and individuals then you are a climate change denier.

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Rhufawn Jones

"I know better than the Met Office because I read it on Facebook..."

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Jeff

Go find it. Times Radio is a start. Also check her history. Really do that. Check what organisation she joined, absolute deniers. Now look at her actions as Mayor. Reform really are bad for people, dangerous.

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Karl

Port Talbot recent moments, lamp down on certain cars. Farage has endlessly pushed against net zero. Try reading. Next you'll say he ain't anti NHS or anti Welsh, when clearly he has said so on both. You really are a Reform enabler

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Llyn

Karl with the far-right it's the same old trick - say it enough and (some) people will believe you.

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Amir

No, we found it. Didn't really have to go looking for it. Sort of found us. It is rather unusually hot and muggy today, isn't it? Maybe just a freak thing but seems to happen more often that not.

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Jeff

I am all right here watching you grasp at thin air when I know it exists, you mistake that I need to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. You carry on. meanwhile the chemtrail believers that are in your party, I mean, come on, its aparty for clowns. Freebie hint for you. https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/04/17/andrea-jenkyns-climate-denier/

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Barry Pandy

Adrian, are you here?

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Hogyn y Gogledd

Well, he's not (all) there, so he could be.

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Fanny Hill

Did he mention Ed? No!

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Fanny Hill

Ironic, is it not? Make the most of it, that’s all you’re getting.

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Fanny Hill

Perhaps they’re relying on Net Zero and also Swansea Council continuing to extend that new sea wall from Mumbles eastwards as a backup?

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Fanny Hill

if nothing else, you're a trier. Just a suggestion, when you're in a hole stop digging, unless of course, you're hoping for a job when Nigel reopens the mines that his heroine ,Thatcher closed.

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Fanny Hill

"This is the daftest thing I've heard in ages." Really? He's got a plethora of high profile Reformers to choose from. Paul Nutall, to name but a few.

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Ap Kenneth

Yes and Climate Central's maps were incredibly simplistic but the actual report does not make any huge claims as to the future sea level rise. So where are the unfounded projections you mention.

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Hogyn y Gogledd

I think you got your fingers mixed up. You meant to type "and I'm so far right"

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Hal

If you believe Thatcher shut down UK manufacturing and industry in the 80s for net zero then you don't understand history.

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FrankC

I think we all know who the morons are in this conversation mate.

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Hal

The UK "voluntarily hollowed out its manufacturing industry" in the 80s. See Figure 4 here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/articles/changesintheeconomysincethe1970s/2019-09-02 PT shut because of global free trade deals that came with Brexit. The EU hasn't shuttered their primary steel making.

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Maybe we might ask him?

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