Ex Plaid Cymru leader encourages costly back charge trick for political letters
Molly Stubbs
Ex-leader of Plaid Cymru Leanne Wood has taken to Facebook to share a tip for those intending to use Freepost envelopes sent alongside political leaflets to trigger reverse-charge postage for political parties.
The post, uploaded to the former Senedd member’s Facebook page on Saturday (29 November), quickly garnered over 1,000 likes and almost 500 comments.
It read: “I’m seeing that some people are using free post to return electoral marketing mail back to the party who sent it, in some cases, with some choice words.
“It’s better to use the free post envelope to send a letter outlining your thoughts, on plain paper, without your name and address.
“That way you will be adding to the costs of the company without giving them data that they can add to their database. 😉”
Although Wood took care not to mention any specific party, many in the comments speculated she was likely referring to Reform UK.
“I guess you mean the ‘Friends of Nathan Gill Party’. I got mine today, thought it rather sporting of them to include postage paid envelope for reply!” A commenter wrote.
Reform UK recently sent out political material to homes across Wales espousing the ‘benefits’ of their party in the run-up to the May 2026 Senedd elections.
“In October, the party I lead, Reform UK, achieved an extraordinary result in the Caerphilly by-election. We went from winning 1.75% of the vote in the 2021 Senedd election to 36%,” the letter, headed ‘WALES NEEDS REFORM’ and signed by party-leader Nigel Farage, begins.
It continues: “People told me that they want to vote for change — and that they are counting on Reform UK to make change happen. It’s humbling to hear that, and it’s a responsibility that my party and I take seriously. Unlike the old party leaders, I will not let you down…
“Labour and Plaid have failed Wales. With your support, Reform can make Wales a nation to be proud of once again.”
Included with the letter was a ‘WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU’ form requesting the recipient’s name, email, address, postcode, phone number, the party voted for in the 2024 general election and how the recipient intends to vote in next year’s Senedd election.
A section titled ‘Which issues are most important to you?’ follows, with tick boxes listing:
- NHS Waiting Lists
- Cost of Living Crisis
- Mass Immigration
- High Energy Prices
- 20 MPH Speed Limit
- Rising Street Crime
- Falling School Standards
- Attacks on Free Speech
The form finishes with a QR code for Reform’s site with the accompanying call to action, ‘JOIN THE PEOPLE’S ARMY TODAY!’
Also included was a Freepost envelope to return the form. Several individuals have suggested sending these envelopes back in order to trigger reverse-charge postage costs that the party will have to pay. A poster in the ‘Anti-Reform’ Facebook group explained: “Sending [the letter] out this early means that this does not count as an electoral expense!
“They have included an envelope to send your reply so people may want to return their flyer, suitably amended, so that Reform UK ltd then have to pay the postage.
“Do remove your name and address from the document and do stick down the envelope flap so they can’t open it before paying.”
Another clarified in a separate post to the same group that doing so would cost Reform UK 87p every time.
Several individuals replied to Leanne Wood announcing their intention to do so, with one commenter also sharing another tip: “Yet to receive mine, but will be returning the envelope filled with press cuttings of Nathan Gill. And perhaps some glitter.
“Ensuring that it weighs over 100g so that they have to pay excess postage. It’s petty but a W is a W”
Another wrote: “I…gave them the same message Caerfilli did.”
Reform UK’s Llyr Powell lost the Caerphilly by-election by 3,848 votes to Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle. Powell and his party also came under fire during his by-election campaign for sending out “misleading” letters.
Using a handwritten font and appearing to have been penned by a Caerphilly resident, Andrew Russell, these letters criticised Welsh Labour while encouraging votes for Reform UK.
However, when Nation.Cymru questioned Andrew Jones, campaign manager for Reform UK’s Caerphilly branch, about whether the sender was really a neighbour of Caerphilly residents, Jones refused to confirm that Russell lived in Caerphilly, but indicated that he does live in “south Wales”.
It was later confirmed that Russell did not live in the Senedd constituency of Caerphilly, but the nearby Islwyn constituency, and was therefore ineligible to vote in the by-election.
With the recent barrage of letters from Reform UK sent to homes in Wales, some have questioned the legality of the practice in general.
According to the ICO, after receiving a copy of the electoral register, candidates and parties can “use the electoral register to contact you to promote their political campaign, unless they know you object to direct marketing.”
Letters “may be used to contact you unless you have asked the organisation not to write to you or not to send you marketing material by post.”
Additionally, “A political campaign can conduct genuine research in the same way professional market research companies do to help inform their views and create policies. However, communications claiming to be for research that are in reality intended to gain your support, now or at some point in the future, are marketing and may need your specific consent.”
While many consider Reform UK’s mail to be a nuisance, not everyone was supportive of Leanne Wood’s postal charge tactics, with one commenter citing a quote: ‘”People reveal so much about themselves by how gracious they are towards rivals.”’
But Wood had no problem engaging with those who disagreed with her, replying to the above with the hashtag #StopTheFarRight.
“Just consider that all parties may well get their marketing leaflets returned in the free post envelopes,” another commenter wrote. “All parties will have negative support including the one you support.”
Leanne Wood then seemed to hint at the recent 10-year sentence of ex Welsh leader of Reform UK, Nathan Gill, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes to conduct pro-Russia interviews and speeches.
In her reply, Wood explained: “Most [political parties] don’t have the money for this kind of thing. Wonder where their money comes from.”
“Fully support spending some of that party’s roubles without giving them any data in return,” a commenter agreed, while another said, “I wrote back in Russian”
But not everyone was satisfied, with one reply to Wood’s post calling into question the legality of her suggestion, and how it reflected on Plaid Cymru.
They wrote: “This is the sort of dirty underhanded behaviour that no public representative should engage in. Is this official Plaid policy? You should be ashamed of yourself for this, it’s dishonest and actually a conspiracy to commit fraud. I suggest you take legal advice.”
Leanne Wood replied: “You are funny. 😂”
Wood, no longer an elected official, lost her Rhondda Senedd seat to Labour’s Buffy Williams in the 2021 Senedd election.
She is currently the Co-Executive Director of Community Energy Wales, a non-profit that supports renewable energy projects, and a member of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales.
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Well said Leanne, have already done it three times
Let’s make it as expensive as possible for them. And if we can bring a little misery to the poor foot-soldiers processing the replies…. so much the better
Their foot soldiers won’t be doing any of the work. The analysis will probably be sourced out to a specialist firm that will no doubt charge a significant fee for the work. Another small step in the Americanisation of our political process which opens the doors to the very rich buying the way we do elections.
Let’s see. That list. street crime is on the fall. Immigration is massively down. Worryingly so. Reform lying there but we know they hate people a different colour to nige. Cost of living is a brexit benefit, farages gig. He sent us all to an expensive place. There are no attacks on free speech, just the hate speech they like is being challenged. 20 is making lives better for no pain. Energy is a mess in the UK and reform will not fix it because farage needs the bungs from oil companies and will make it far far worse. Tricky… Read more »
I would love to send back a hundred of these things with lead weights in but being a ‘woke’ type who actually cares about the well-being of people, I would want to put a postie off work with a bad back.
CORRECTION! ‘I would NOT want to put a postie off work with a bad back’. Phew! Love to the posties. Be well now ya hear?
The main thing is not to send them your name and address – you’ll never hear the last from them. Underhanded tactics are going to be the norm in the run up to next May – lies and dirt everywhere. This election is going to be extremely important so people must wake up and see through the sh*t and not just blindly vote.
I already did as Leanne as suggested. However I put some old lead weights in the envelope to increase the weight. I’m not sure if that makes a difference to the cost
There was not one iota of bilingualism on the form which was one of the things I pointed out in my reply
Remember to put Vladimir Putin’s name above the return address on the envelope before posting it back to them!!
Excellent idea. If thousands of us did the same it would cost Reform a great deal for zero return. Fewer resources to spread disinformation on Russia’s behalf.
At the top of the Reform Leaflet one finds the words “WALES NEEDS REFORM”. Beneath it I wrote “LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD”, and, without further ado, sent it back to Reform in the envelope provided.
Used my Reform pre-paid reply envelope to send them picture of Nathan Gill being sentenced. Strangely, the reply envelope is addressed to the shop in Caerphilly they rented for their failed by-election campaign. Obviously, the rental term assumed they would win but they’re still paying rent on it so using it for admin. Reminds me that the NHS Wales bowl cancer screening unit is based in Nant Garw. They request stool samples.
Adrian said –
‘Well, when democracy doesn’t get you what you want you just have to resort to there means, eh Leanne?’
People didn’t ask to be sent these Reform UK letters.
Following your logic we would be listening to every cold call we get in full.
Leanne Wood’s suggestion and those made by others means that Farage’s company get’s feedback which is supposedly what it wants unless it’s just our names and contact details it’s after.
OK – a heads up to CapM and any other similarly uninformed people out there. When you periodically ratify your electoral register entry there’s an option to be excluded from something called the ‘open register’. This means that your local authority, which routinely sells your address & other info to private companies – and makes a pile of money from doing so, has to remove your information from the list they flog. Those who’ve grasped this fairly basic principle get almost no junk mail, and no political campaign letters.
You’re welcome.
Your arrogance and ignorance really know no bounds does it Reform boy?
Political parties have access to the full register (the one you can opt out of is the open register) for campaigning activities, including sending election communications to voters, surveying opinions or fundraising. You’re welcome!
FYI, both my spouse and I are not on the open register yet we’ve still received this crap from Reform.
As for Leanne Woods’ suggestion, never has the phrase “ Send the Buggers Back” been more appropriate.