Reform UK in turmoil following 'no show' at broadcast debate

Martin Shipton

Reform UK is in turmoil in Wales after a bizarre statement was posted on Facebook justifying the party’s decision to boycott the first broadcast debate of the Senedd election campaign and then swiftly taken down.

Having initially agreed to put forward a representative for the BBC Radio Wales Sunday Supplement debate on January 4 chaired by BBC political editor Gareth Lewis, the party told the BBC on January 2 that it would not be doing so after all. The debate went ahead with spokespeople from Welsh Labour, the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Wales Green Party.

Reform UK was accused by other parties of cowardice for not submitting itself to scrutiny.

Later a statement posted on Reform UK’s Aberafan Maesteg Facebook site said: "The reaction to Reform UK’s absence from this morning’s BBC Radio Wales debate tells residents of Afan Ogwr Rhondda everything they need to know about how Welsh politics really works - and why so many people feel ignored.

“This was not a neutral public service debate.

“It was a BBC-hosted discussion between five parties that have collectively governed, en\abled or failed Wales - and communities like ours - for more than 25 years.

“Same parties.

“Same faces.

“Same excuses.

“Same outcomes.

“Reform UK will not be lectured about scrutiny by a political class that has delivered:

* The longest NHS waiting lists in Britain

* Falling standards in education

* Rising bills and declining household incomes

* Broken local services

“Nor will we accept lectures from a broadcaster that continues to frame Welsh politics through a Cardiff Bay bubble, while people in Afan Ogwr Rhondda are talked about - but rarely listened to.

“It is particularly rich to hear accusations of ‘contempt for Wales’ from Plaid Cymru, whose leadership has repeatedly helped prop up Welsh Labour budgets and policies - keeping the same failing system in place while claiming to oppose it.

“Comments from figures such as Mabon ap Gwynfor ring hollow when Plaid has spent years sustaining the very set-up voters are now rejecting.

“Reform UK is polling strongly because people here want real change - not choreographed studio debates moderated by the BBC’s political class, including editors such as Gareth Lewis, who challenge outsiders far more aggressively than those who’ve already failed our communities.

“We will engage directly with residents of Afan Ogwr Rhondda - on the ground, online and through open, fair scrutiny - not through managed debates designed to protect the status quo.

“Let’s be honest. This backlash isn’t about democracy. It’s about fear.

“Fear that people in communities like hours are no longer buying what Cardiff Bay - or the BBC - is selling.

“Reform UK is here to break the cycle.

“To put Afan Ogwr Rhondda - and Wales - first.”

Gareth Lewis is the BBC journalist who succeeded in putting Nigel Farage on the back foot when interviewing him about allegations that he had taunted Jewish pupils about the gassing of Jews by the Nazis when he was a teenage school student.

A political source who took a screenshot of the post told Nation.Cymru it was only visible for around an hour before being taken down.

“Obviously there’s been quite a row about what was in the statement behind the scenes,” the source said.

Pathetic

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, Plaid Cymru’s health and social care spokesperson, said: “This statement from Reform is unbelievable and pathetic. It completely misrepresents the position and exposes the cowardice of a party that has nothing to offer Wales, and whose policies, such as they are, would continue austerity and cause even more damage to our public services.

“The debate was run fairly. Gareth Lewis gave me and other participants a hard time. That’s his job. It’s totally shocking that Reform don’t want to subject themselves to scrutiny. They don’t want to be shown up for what they are.

“I believe that during the course of the campaign more and more people in Wales will see them for what they are.”

Blaenau Gwent Labour MS Alun Davies said: “It’s very telling that whoever wrote that appalling statement didn’t put their name to it.

“All politicians seeking election to public office should be prepared to expose themselves to public scrutiny in debates of this kind. It is absolutely disgraceful that Reform is not prepared to do that, but the fact is that they have nothing to offer Wales. The more people see of them, the more they will come to see them for the charlatans they are.”

Social media

A Reform insider told Nation.Cymru: “It’s likely that the party will want to ignore the Welsh media as much as possible and aim to get its messages out via social media, GB News and the Daily Mail, which has quite a high readership in Wales.”

During the 1930s, the Daily Mail, under the ownership of Viscount Harold Rothermere, was openly sympathetic to Adolf Hitler, the Nazis, and the British Union of Fascists.

Since being elected an MP in 2024, Mr Farage has been paid more than £400,000 by the right wing TV channel GB News for appearances totalling 208 hours.