Reform UK 'reneged on candidate promise to former Assembly Member'

Martin Shipton

A former Welsh Assembly Member has accused Reform UK of reneging on a promise to make her a leading Senedd candidate after she revealed a senior Reform official’s history as a football hooligan.

Caroline Jones was elected as a UKIP AM for South Wales West in 2016 and for a period led the party’s group Assembly group.

Now she has written a Facebook post in which she claims she was told that in return for helping to build the party in Wales she would be rewarded with the number one slot on Reform’s list of candidates in the new constituency of Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg, which includes Porthcawl, where she lives.

After announcing her resignation from Reform this week, she responded to a message from a sympathiser with a Facebook post of her own. In which she blames Matthew MacKinnon, a former Tory staffer who coordinated Senedd candidate selection in Wales, for removing her from the list of candidates.

In her post, she writes: “Most of us were duped. Our area in Bridgend has a lead candidate from Coventry! Never agreed with parachuting people in.

“I wanted change as much as you, hence the reason I joined Reform. I was happily Independent and no plans to join any party. I was asked to stand in Bridgend for Reform; this was when I was on holiday and received a phone call. I agreed to stand in Bridgend for the GE [general election] and came a respectable second.

“A while later [in 2022 when Reform was polling at around 3% or 4%] I had a visit at my home from HQ asking if I would promote the whole of Wales, interviewing and selecting Welsh candidates for the general election.

“This meant any paid work was foregone and for two years I worked hard to help increase membership, put together mini conferences to showcase our candidates and promote Reform.

“I was told there was no payment and no expenses but my reward would be to be the lead candidate in Bridgend for the Senedd election. I have this in writing. Also, I prepared visits and extensive reports regarding the steelworks current situation.

“I was told by the person visiting my home that the agreement was with the blessing of the leadership. I then received a telephone call asking if I knew anything about a person they were interviewing to work for Reform [Matthew MacKinnon]. He had apparently worked in the Senedd the same time as I was a Senedd Member. I did not know the person and had never heard of him.

“People then told me he had been allegedly sacked from his position and had been convicted of football hooliganism.”

Banning orders

In fact, rather than being convicted, MacKinnon was one of five Swansea City fans given banning orders in 2012 for three years, following incidents at matches involving the club. The bans were imposed at a civil hearing held at Swansea Magistrates' Court.

Apart from being banned from Swansea City’s ground, then known as the Liberty Stadium, they were also ordered not to enter any town or city where Swansea City or Wales were playing away on the day of a match. The order was made on the basis that they had caused or contributed to violence and disorder, which they admitted.

Ms Jones’ Facebook post continues: “As the information was second hand I gave the name of the person and number (with their blessing) to verify this account.

“[MacKinnon] had been taken on by Reform and was subsequently sacked. The leadership changed and he was brought back by the new leadership as a director and was instrumental in selecting Welsh candidates.

“I received two weeks ago messages to say he had allegedly stated at HQ that I would not be given a position for the Senedd when my name came up at HQ.

“Had I known he was instrumental in the candidate selection process and what he had allegedly said I would not have had anything to do with the party.

“This is the reason I announced [my resignation from the party] at this time as I only recently found out that I, like many others, have been well and truly shafted.

“I spent much of my savings, raised thousands of pounds also for the branch. My branch meetings in Bridgend averaged 100 to 150 people at any one time. The mini conferences and fundraising event averaged 200 in strong Labour heartlands, which again showed my commitment and loyalty to the party.

“This has cost me a lot of my life savings. What for? No answers to questions, just silence. We all deserve better treatment than that. Members and longstanding local candidates have had no say whatsoever (and I believed I was part of a democratic party).

“Many of us paid and passed the selection process first time which meant absolutely nothing. Many of us are aware that those who attempted to pass the assessment and failed several times have been given top positions and the majority were members of a Conservative think tank in Cardiff.

“I therefore do not deserve the criticism and negativity as most have not spent time promoting the party or the money that I have only to receive broken promises.

“Members of a Cardiff think tank called Centre for Welsh Studies (Conservative Party members) have placed many candidates from this Centre in prime positions throughout Wales.

“The Director of this Centre (Matthew MacKinnon) is none other than the person I was asked to find information on prior to the party employing him! Speaks volumes doesn’t it.”

Mackinnon was a director of the right-wing think tank, which he founded with Llyr Powell, Reform’s unsuccessful Senedd by-election candidate in Caerphilly.

MacKinnon confirmed that the think tank had received funding from a United States-based global organisation called the Atlas Network that seeks to promote right-wing free market ideology across the world. The mission of Atlas, according to John Blundell, its president from 1987 to 1990 "is to litter the world with free-market think-tanks."

Dark money

Mackinnon said in 2021: “We are the only think tank in Wales that supports the free market, so it's not surprising that we should wish to work in partnership with the Atlas Network. We have received grants of a few thousand pounds from it."

Critics refer to grants dispensed by organisations like the Atlas Network as “dark money”.

Reform UK was invited to respond to Ms Jones’ Facebook post, but declined to do so.

Reform maintains that it has a fair selection process based on ability and that all candidates are assessed by the same criteria.