'Temu Translations': Reform's Welsh leader poses with new Welsh spelling gaffe

Stephen Price

Reform's Dan Thomas has found himself posing with yet more Welsh misspellings, after making headline news with the party's poorly spelt Welsh manifesto only last week.

On a visit to Coleg Gwent's Crosskeys Campus on Monday 9 March, Thomas posed with a selfie frame featuring the words 'Your Vote Matters', and the hashtags ‘#WelcomeToYourVote’ and ‘#CroesoiDyBleidas’ in English and Welsh below.

The supposed Welsh translation, which reads 'Croeso i dy bleidas', intending to mean 'Welcome to your vote' should in fact be written 'Croeso i dy bleidlais' - with the mutated form of 'pleidlais' missing its second letters 'l' and 'i'.

Dan Thomas' visit came as part of The Electoral Commission's 'Your Vote Week' which takes place from Monday 9 March to Sunday 15 March 2026.

Writing on Facebook later that day, Thomas shared a photo of himself, oblivious to the sign's misspelling of the word.

He wrote: "Great to be back at my old college today, Coleg Gwent Crosskeys for Your Vote Week.

"Engagement with young voters is key to eradicating voter apathy in Wales.

"If you want real change for Wales, you have got to vote for it in May."

Although it is unclear who created the frame, commenters were quick to point out his oversight.

Paul Williams wrote: "What’s a bleidas?"

Robin Edwards shared: "Dan Temu translations."

While Ann Davies added: "This is embarrassing. Who is translating for Reform? Can't they get the Welsh right?"

Manifesto

This latest Welsh language 'fail' comes less than a week after Nigel Farage's visit to Wales to announce Reform's manifesto, which includes plans to build an M4 relief road, and scrap Wales' globally-admired 20mph default speed limit.

In a widely-shared photo, Mr Farage and Mr Thomas held up a signed copy of their manifesto, and commenters on social media were quick to point out that two out of the three Welsh words on the document were spelled incorrectly.

The manifesto cover featured the words 'Family, community, country,' which had been translated to: "Teulu, gymuned, wlad.

While 'Teulu' (family) was written in its correct form, the words 'Cymuned' (community) and 'Gwlad' (country) incorrectly appeared in mutated forms.

Reform have misspelt 2 out of the 3 Welsh words on their manifesto for Wales.

Nigel Farage and their Wales leader Dan Thomas proudly held up a signed copy of the manifesto at the launch yesterday.

On the front cover it reads "Family, community, country," which has been… pic.twitter.com/xqpsKJS9vm

— Will Hayward (@WillHayCardiff) March 6, 2026

Social media users were quick to point out the error, with Will Hayward the first journalist to report on the faux pas.

He wrote: "What's weird is that other manifestos at the event had the correct spelling.

I would guess they spotted the error so got a new batch printed but forgot to throw away the old ones..."

X user, Maria, wrote: "Yet again Reform show their distain for Wales."

Another shared: "Probably blame the printers again..."

Welsh language campaigners have said the Reform manifesto shows that the party understands nothing about Wales, after Nigel Farage claimed that the Welsh language is ‘thriving.’

When announcing the Reform manifesto on Thursday, 5 March, Nigel Farage and Dan Thomas said the party intends to abolish the target of reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050 because the language is “thriving,” which, according to Cymdeithas yr Iaith, shows that the party understands nothing about Wales.

Cymdeithas has expressed concerns over Reform’s “extremely dangerous” plans for the Welsh language and Welsh communities.

Additionally, there is uncertainty over the future of the Welsh Language Commissioner’s office under Reform’s leadership.

The party also said that they intend to replace “arbitrary” targets for the language, and party leader Nigel Farage MP added that there was no need for “quangos” either when asked about the position of Welsh Language Commissioner.

Farage said: “From what I can understand the Welsh language is thriving in Wales. It’s being taught in schools.

“It seems the under 40s speak a lot more Welsh than the over 40s in some parts. I would say let Welsh culture, let the Welsh language thrive

“I don’t see that it needs targets or quangos. If it’s happening, it’s happening because people want it to happen, and I think that’s a very good thing.”

Dan Thomas added: “There’s plenty of examples of arbitrary targets where they don’t work and in a decade or two time they get reversed. Look at the 50% target with regard to university admissions.

“…We support the Welsh language but we don’t think the target is necessary, it’s organically, on its own doing very well.”

Owain Meirion, Chair of Cymdeithas said: “Considering that only 17.8% of Wales’ population can speak Welsh, and that the proportion of speakers has steadily declined over the last two censuses to the lowest figure ever, the fact that Nigel Farage believes Welsh is thriving shows his complete ignorance.

“Of course, Farage will not be a candidate in Wales nor accountable to the people of Wales.

“The only policy the party have regarding the Welsh language is to remove the target of a million speakers by 2050, thereby cutting the support that already exists for the language.

“Additionally, there is no mention of the Welsh language in any other section of the manifesto.

“It is clear that the party has no real interest in the Welsh language or our communities, and both would be in enormous danger under a Reform UK government.”

Notably, all Welsh First Ministers have been bilingual Welsh and English speakers with the exception of Vaughan Gething who spent 118 days in the post, and considered himself a Welsh learner.