News
Reform director of comms branded Nation.Cymru journalists 'vile nats'
Emily Price
Reform UK’s director of communications branded Nation.Cymru journalists "vile nats" and warned senior party figures not to share our articles online, leaked text messages reveal.
Screen grabs from an internal WhatsApp group chat show that on December 26 last year, there was a discussion about whether to amplify a Nation.Cymru article about how Reform’s membership had surpassed the Conservatives.
Suggesting a social media post that could go with our article, regional director for Wales Cllr David Thomas sent a message asking policy manager Mark Reckless if his post idea was ok.
Cllr Thomas wrote: "The oldest party in British politics is crumbling, Reform UK is rising.
"With over 132,949 members, we are now the true voice of the British people.
"This isn’t just a political shift - it’s the birth of a movement to restore British greatness. #ReformUK #RealOppostion.
"This ok @Mark Reckless?"
Before Reckless could respond, comms lead Ed Sumner wrote: "Can we not share Nation.Cymru.
"They are vile nats."
Cllr Thomas replied: "Yes they are. I like pissing them off. But if you’re not up for it I’ll leave it."
The Torfaen councillor later went ahead and published the post alongside the Nation.Cymru article on his own X account anyway.
We noted that two months after the message exchange, Cllr Thomas told a Nation.Cymru journalist that he didn't know who Ed Sumner was.
A Reform UK source told us the messages reveal how much influence Mark Reckless has behind the scenes at the party.
The 54-year-old was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Conservative banner in 2010.
He defected to UKIP in 2014 following several controversies but later lost his Rochester and Strood seat to the Tories.
In 2016, he stood in the Welsh election for the South Wales East seat.
A year later he left UKIP to join the Conservative group in the then Welsh Assembly.
Reckless then sat as an independent Member before becoming the leader of the Brexit Party in Wales.
After attracting criticism over his calls for Wales’ Parliament to be axed, he joined the Abolish the Welsh Assemble Party.
In 2024, Reckless appeared as a guest speaker at Reform UK’s Welsh conference.
It was later confirmed that he would be working on Reform's policies for Wales at the 2026 Senedd election.
A Reform UK source said: "Mark has been falling over himself to be head honcho for Nigel.
"But HQ has always had an eye on all the baggage he brings, flip-flopping between all those different parties all the years back.
"There’s no way he could be back in the public eye with that and being back in the Senedd would be painful for everyone. Deep down he knows it like we all do.
"But Mark wants to be above Dave Thomas and back in a power seat in Cardiff Bay so he loves making Thomas his tea boy."
The leaked WhatsApp messages come amid concerns about Reform UK's treatment of the media in Wales.
Last week, Nation.Cymru revealed that Ed Sumner had branded journalist and podcaster Will Hayward a "cunt" in a group chat after he questioned why the party hadn’t elected a Welsh leader.
It came after Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage hit out at BBC Wales accusing the organisation of left-wing bias because its interim director of nations Rhuanedd Richards had previously worked for Plaid Cymru.
In recent weeks, we also reported how Reform UK barrister Adam Richardson had tried to bully Nation.Cymru with threats of legal action.
Richardson claimed Nation.Cymru had breached Sumner’s right to privacy after we named him as implicated in the events that led to the suspension of his former employer, Reform MS Laura Anne Jones, from the Senedd.
In June last year, we had reported how Sumner had sent "sickening" messages about immigration, diversity and "gays" to a Tory group chat when he worked as a senior advisor to Jones.
Reform’s various attacks on the media led to the National Union of Journalists in Wales releasing a statement condemning the party’s "unacceptable" behaviour.
At the weekend, Cllr David Thomas continued to hit out at the Welsh media.
In a post to X, the Torfaen councillor - who oversaw the party's failed Caerphilly by-election campaign - described Welsh journalists as "pet bloggers" who couldn’t stop "obsessing" over him and his colleagues.
He wrote: "The more they write, the more desperate they look and the more obvious it becomes that they’re terrified of what’s coming."
Cllr Thomas later published a second post claiming the Welsh media was "racist" because it "protects" Plaid Cymru's "anti-English agenda".
He added: "If ANY other party tolerated this kind of bigotry, it would be a national scandal. But because it’s Plaid, the media say nothing.
"It’s hypocrisy. It’s hostility. It’s racism plain and simple."
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Get more trusted Welsh news
Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.