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Reform Wales talent branded 'Ozempic thin' following embarrassing TV interview

By Emily Price
Dame Nia Griffith, Tom Giffard MS, Delyth Jewell MS look on astonished as Gethin James answers questions on Y Byd yn ei Le.

Emily Price 

The level of talent among Reform UK's potential Senedd candidates has been branded "Ozempic thin" following the latest in a number of "disastrous" and "embarrassing" television interviews.

It came following comments made by a Reform UK representative on S4C’s Welsh language politics analysis programme, Y Byd yn ei Le, on Thursday (October 16). 

The show featured guests from across Wales' political spectrum including Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell, Welsh Conservative MS Tom Giffard and Labour MP Dame Nia Griffith. 

Failed Reform Senedd election candidate Gethin James represented Nigel Farage’s party on the show.

Whilst being quizzed on what Reform's Welsh policies could look like, members of the show’s panel could be seen shaking their heads in disbelief as Mr James struggled to fend off questions.

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'Change'

He previously stood as a candidate for Reform UK in the 2021 Senedd election for the Ceredigion seat but only gained 3 per cent of the vote.

Mr James is expected to stand again in May's Welsh elections for Reform UK.

Asked what his party was offering, Mr James simply replied, "Change".

Presenter Catrin Haf Jones pressed the Senedd hopeful further, asking what he meant by this.

Mr James said: "Look at things in a new way. Not doing things as they’ve been done for years."

Asked again what he meant by this, the Reform representative said: "Plaid and Labour have been working together over the years."

Catrin Haf Jones asked again: "Yes, but what are you offering? What are *you* offering? What does ‘change’ mean?"

Mr James replied: "A fresh look at it."

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Policies

Reform UK are currently campaigning hard in Caerphilly where the party hopes to win a key by-election next week following the sudden death of Labour incumbent Hefin David.

A recent by-election poll revealed that Nigel Farage's party has opened up a narrow lead over Plaid Cymru.

Polling for next May’s Senedd election has also revealed a two horse race between Reform UK and Plaid.

Asked what "change" means for people voting for Reform, Mr James said: "We don’t have our policies out yet but they will be out soon."

Catrin Haf Jones pointed out that Reform are standing in a by-election on October 23.

Mr James replied: "The opinion polls are showing us at the top."

'Waste'

Asked why that might be, Reform's representative replied: "Well, ask the people out there that are going to vote for us and hopefully we’re going to win next week."

Mr James was then asked what he stood for personally and why he wanted to stand for Reform UK in next year's Senedd election.

He responded: "I believe there is a lot waste in the Senedd and I want to review how the money is spent and not waste money internationally and planting trees in Uganda and places like that."

Catrin Haf Jones pointed out that these schemes amounted to a tiny amount of the overall budget in Cardiff Bay and asked how much money Reform are hoping to save.

Mr James continued to flounder, saying: "But to people who can’t get a doctor or a GP, it is something."

'No idea'

Asked if he had any idea at all how much money his party could save by cutting "wasteful spending", Mr James admitted he "has no idea about figures."

He said: "We will do the calculations and get a grip on the figures like that."

Catrin Haf Jones replied: "Is it a little bit irresponsible to ask for people’s votes when you can’t actually say what you are standing for, Gethin?"

Mr James said: "People have had a guts full of the status quo. I hope people will see that even if they vote for Plaid we will have Labour next year again."

Clips of the awkward interview later went viral on social media.

'Disastrous'

Welsh Conservative Senedd Member Tom Giffard branded the exchange "the latest in a long line of disastrous interviews" from soon-to-be Reform Senedd candidates, who "simply haven’t got a clue what they want to do if they were elected next May".

He said: "It becomes clearer by the day that Reform’s talent pool in Wales is Ozempic-thin, and many of their candidates simply aren’t up to the job of governing in Wales.

"Whether you support Reform or not, it’s obvious that electing candidates that don’t have the first idea what they’d do in power won’t deliver the change Wales needs.

"That’s why the Welsh Conservatives have a clear plan to cut income tax, scrap business rates for small businesses and abolish stamp duty to boost our economy and fix Wales."

Plaid Cymru's Delyth Jewell said: "It was pretty clear that Reform have no answers to the issues affecting our communities, and no policy proposals.

"All they can say is that something will be sorted out in due course - and that's simply not good enough.

"The Caerphilly by-election is in five days' time - and people need answers now, not empty slogans. It's almost embarrassing to see just how little it is they have to offer."

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24 comments

Amir

Deform just want to obliterate Welsh language, senedd and Wales itself, stop the boats coming up the river taf, get rid of nation of Sanctuary, establish puten as honorary head of state and do little else. And they still get voted in by a bunch of bigots.

Reply
Beardie

According to the 2021 Census: 29% of the residents of Wales were not born here. This includes people born in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and overseas.Population born outside the UK: Approximately 6.9% of usual residents in Wales were born outside the UK.Population born in England: Around 21 % of the population in Wales were born in England.Increase in non-UK born population: The number of residents born outside the UK increased by 28.3% between the 2011 and 2021 censuses. 

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Steve D.

No policies other than booting every immigrant out of Cymru. The party may still win this Thursday but this will only become a bigger issue for reform as next year's election gets closer - it can't avoid it - that and a lack of Welsh leader. It's definitely time for change but through a Plaid, policy lead, government not an empty, bigoted far right party.

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Dai

The rise of Reform is born purely out of Labour and Conservatives inability to react to voters concerns in the past and do exactly the opposite. The status quo have ignored points raised about immigration and how it affects the nation, now if you say anything at all about it you're a far right bigot. Labour need to get a grip of the situation quickly, we can all see that Reform are a one trick pony but ultimately due to a degredation of politics and politicians over successive years this has led us to this position.

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Jones

Nobody voting for Reform is watching S4C snd if they do, they don't care how stupid people are because they are stupid too. And they will still win elections.

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Jeff

Not allowed to think outside Moscow Nige's box. And couldn't even if they could. They will never fix anything. They will break for Moscow Nige's paymasters. Lets see how its going. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/18/suck-it-up-leaked-video-exposes-bitter-infighting-at-reform-uks-flagship-kent-council

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Y Cymro

Talent and Reform UK are not natural bedfellows. Those standing are not the brightest of bulbs or sharpest tools in the box. Full of tools, yes.

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Owain Morgan

1. This muppet couldn't even answer a question. 2. Branding all candidates the same is discrimination and exactly what needs to be avoided. I will happily call a spade a spade and a muppet a muppet, but I won't have massive generalisations about ALL politicians and ALL candidates. When you do that you sound like a Fascist or a Nazi. So, please avoid doing that?

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hdavies15

Tolerating mediocrity does not improve matters. It just allows us to sink even further.

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In reply to hdavies15

CapM

The - all parties are as bad as each other - is a tactic used by truly bad parties as it brings every party down to their level. Allowing them to push the - you might as well vote for us even if it's just for change's sake. It's a ploy that is pumped out currently by Reform and it's supporters and works best on those who are rather light when it comes to critical thinking skills.

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In reply to CapM

hdavies15

You won't catch me voting for Reform but if any of the other parties turn up at my door I'll be critical of their collective failures to move beyond the "we ain't Reform" stance and articulate something positive regarding future performance. That's the basis of my concerns.

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Crwtyddol

I watched the programme and Reform was so poor, it was embarrassing to the point I couldn't watch it any more.

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Fanny Hill

Well their answer to everything is "Change". We'll certainly get that if these clowns get into power, and it won't be "Change" for the better. Caerphilly and Wales, we deserve better than this.

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Owain Morgan

This is all well and good, but the problem is that most people won't hear about it. Reform LTD will keep blaming migrants and migration for all the problems on this island and because we have a total lack of leadership from Cathays Park and Downing Street they'll probably win. I don't take that prospect lightly though because the idea scares me. I do not believe that enough voters understand what will happen if Reform LTD take power across this island. They will slash taxes destroying the welfare state, the NHS and the economy. Then while the rich get massive tax cuts and the rest of suffer, mass deportations will cause the economy to shrink even more than it already has. The almost unbelievable truth is that even if you explain this to some definite Reform LTD voters and they believe you, they literally don't care as long as the people they don't like suffer more and faster than they do.

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Zarah Daniel

This is exactly the playbook Trump used to win the election the first time around. Every serious politician could see he was a moron. He had no clue how to run the country or what was going on with the wider world. He was just a TV celebrity, a guy who had been pushing his "look at me being a business man" shtick in the media for so many years that he'd become a caricature of himself......but the public liked the caricature. It said funny things, it called important people funny names, and sometimes it said it was angry about the same things that they were angry about. The funny, fake character drew them in just like the "I'm not really a multi-millionaire ex-banker - I'm just your mate down the pub" drew British people in. They were induced to forget that he was earning his money and building up a huge pension from the European Union the whole time that he was telling everyone how much he hated how much money it took from Britain - he didn't want to mention that some of British money was probably going in to paying for him to swan around Europe doing nothing but criticising and topping up his wine cellar. He is using Trump's playbook - 1 - give simple answers that feed anger, not reason. Feed a sense of superiority in your supporters over the opposition - they are in the gang and everyone else are the Losers. .2 - Never even engage with the real, complex issues - treat them as if they are the distraction. Feel free to beat, shout, or encourage a mob-mentality to get a crowd to shout down anyone raising real issues instead of your issues. 3 - breed mistrust in all the reliable sources of information so that you become the ONLY source. Even typically supportive sources must be treated as "vulnerable to being infiltrated/influenced by THEM" in case they start to withdraw support. It must be possible to turn supporters against ANY source of information as having become a poisoned well whenever the need arises. 4 - create constant distractions to prevent any air being given to ANY real issues. If real issues get airtime you will be required to address them and you are not equipped. Even if that sometimes makes you look a little bad or, for preference, someone you associate with looks bad, it is worth it if the distraction is big enough. If it means you have to fire someone or issue some kind of public apology, that's good - that whole process gives you even more time in the media spotlight doing the "right" thing by saying sorry for some indiscretion or so you can fire someone else for theirs and look shocked and appalled as if you didn't know (because you are an upstanding individual) and it all stop people from looking at whatever you wanted to distract them from caring about...........like, perhaps matters of personal tax responsibilities for example We can call Reform a bunch of morons but so is Trump and he won - twice.........

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Brian

Very true. And yes it's definitely the Trump play book. Result would be that we become an even bigger lap dogs to the US and wave goodbye for ever to our neighbours in the EU and ofcourse the ECHR. Watch the farmers squeel then and yet lots of them follow Farage like some messiah.

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Badger

Change for the better, or change for the worse?

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Owain Morgan

For the worse. Reform LTD will slash taxes for the rich, destroy the welfare state, the NHS and the economy. Then they'll carry out mass deportations which will shrink the economy even further than their other actions will.

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Jeff

Bear in mind the US version of ICE are racially profiling people, adducting them with no due process. reform supporters will be salivating at that and one Express reporter already went there with an MP.

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Andy w

If you want to stop Reforms growth, stop supporting their funders. Heathrow Airport funded the Reform conference- then a few days later the Government announced that Gatwick Airport could expand; politicians know how to play the game. N..B. Labour controlled councils part-own Manchester/ Stansted / East Midlands Airports and are all expanding. 1990s British Airways chose not to buy Rolls-Royce plc aircraft engines; now Rolls-Royce plc is working with easyJet on Hydrogen powered engines and both organisations are expanding. BA has had to close long-haul bases in Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham over the last 25 years; recently they have reduced ling-haul flying from Gatwick Airport. Personally I ‘d be buying easyJet and Rolls-Royce plc shares and avoiding BA shares.

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Erisian

Perhaps Nigle Barrage should have called it the Dunning Kruger Party. Most of them can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Their performance in Local Government has been a complete failure: Achieving nothing, resigning, being suspended or even arrested, and fighting among themselves. For more on this topic please see https://www.youtube.com/@politicalcustard.

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Only Considerable Upsides

The "people need answers now, not empty slogans", stated Delyth Jewel of Plaid Cymru, yet polling suggests a high proportion of the electorate are quite happy to blindly pledge their support to a party with no policies and plenty of slogans. Are we looking down the barrel of a Brexit repeat in Caerphilly next Thursday and, far worse, across the whole of our country in May?

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hdavies15

My point exactly but too many people on here are wedded to just trotting out the "we ain't Reform" mantra without anything of worth about their own visions and plans. Other parties should be making a real meal of all this, so many open goals to aim at.

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Only Considerable Upsides

The problem facing those parties in Wales which have had a successful and positive influence on government is how to sell good, worthwhile, beneficial policies to the electorate without being seen as being part of the problem. Disinformation, spread by the right-wing parties and press, often shouts louder than the calmer, reasoned, arguments put forward in support of good policies such as the Nation of Sanctuary, Plant!, and Mbale tree planting programmes, which have direct benefits for people living here in Wales. Much like during Brexit, the sensible argument is often lost in the excitable and irascible debate surrounding these topics.

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Leave a reply

Replying to Fanny Hill Cancel

Well their answer to everything is "Change". We'll certainly get that if these clowns get into power, and it won't be "Change" for the better. Caerphilly and Wales, we deserve better than this.

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