Far right squabbles over breakaway plan to stand Senedd candidates

Martin Shipton

Fractures are appearing among far-right groups in Wales, with two notorious racists demanding that a breakaway party stands down its candidates to give Reform UK a clear run in May’s Senedd election.

Ben Habib, a wealthy financier and former Brexit Party MEP, became deputy leader of Reform UK, but fell out with Nigel Farage and was removed from the deputy leadership after saying that people on small boats who were trying to enter the UK from France should be left to drown.

He also called for the mass deportation of migrants.

In 2025 Habib set up Advance UK and made it clear that he planned to field candidates in forthcoming elections. In a video message sent to Advance UK members in Wales before Christmas 2025, Habib said: “This is a personal message from me, Ben Habib, leader of Advance UK, to all our members in Wales.

“I want to thank you very much for all that you’ve done to help in a few short months get Advance UK firmly onto the political map. We are the seventh largest party in the UK, fully registered and now ready to fight elections. Moreover we have the thick end of 40,000 members, which already makes us capable of fighting a general election.

“All of this is down to your efforts and the recruitment drive that you and your colleagues have been on to get more and more members into the party. And as you might have heard me say, if we can get to a million members by 2029, it doesn’t matter what the establishment throws at us, we will win that next general election.

“So thank you for what you’ve done, and thank you very much for the huge work and efforts that are going to be required in order for us to prevail – and prevail we must and prevail we shall.”

Having appointed Richard Taylor, a former teenage criminal and evangelical preacher as Advance UK’s leader in Wales, Taylor stepped down from the role after posting foul-mouthed videos that did not accord with Habib’s attempt to make the party appear respectable.

Last week Rupert Lowe, who was elected as a Reform MP in 2024 but left the party after being accused by Farage of bullying staff – allegations that Lowe denied and were not proven – founded a new movement led by himself called Restore Britain.

“Habib has invited Lowe to run candidates in the Senedd election under Advance UK’s banner.

Voice of Wales

But in a new intervention, Stan Robinson of the Swansea and Llanelli-based racist group Voice of Wales has urged Habib in a video not to damage Reform UK’s Senedd candidates by running candidates of his own.

Robinson, who once expressed the hope that well-known political journalist Adam Boulton would be castrated with a rusty blade, runs the Voice of Wales internet channel with Dan Morgan, a convicted fraudster. In a video, Robinson states, using at times typically offensive language: “Well hello there. I know that many of you have not seen me for a while. But I am forced to to make this video really because Advance UK are standing in Wales. This is a dreadful, dreadful decision. Unbelievably crass.

“Now, Ben Habib is a good guy, but he’s London centric and he does not know what the stakes are here in Wales. Dan [Morgan] has made a call to him. I’m about to make a call to him to withdraw their candidates in Wales.

“This is the opportunity that Wales needs to get rid of Labour, Plaid, Green and Lib Dems forever. The only way they can do that is by not having anyone else stand against them. And that’s what will happen even if they take a handful of votes. It means that Reform UK – and I’m not a Reform UK man, but Reform UK have the best chance to scupper the great unwashed who make up this terrible name. I call them the retarded group, but they seem to think that they’re liberals. They’re not. They want to spend money on everything except the people of Wales.

“So my message to Pete Prosser, who’s the director in Wales, who was a member of the Brexit Party, who was a member of Reform is: stand down. Do not do this because you’ll do two things. You’ll never recover. And even if you do recover, it’ll be under the banner of Rupert Lowe. This is a mistake, and you need to stop now.”

Ironically Robinson was the UKIP candidate in Llanelli at the 2024 general election. He came bottom of the poll with 600 votes. Nia Griffith, the sitting Labour MP, was re-elected with a majority of just 1,504 over the second-placed Reform candidate.