Formal complaint to Returning Officer as Reform is accused of lying about Nation of Sanctuary
Martin Shipton
Leading members of the Ukrainian community in Caerphilly are making a formal complaint to the official running the seat’s Senedd by-election, alleging that Reform UK is lying about the Welsh Government’s Nation of Sanctuary programme.
Reform has put the Nation of Sanctuary scheme at front and centre of the far right party’s campaign to win its first seat in the Senedd, seeking to smear Labour and Plaid Cymru as the architects of the programme.
Leaflet
This week Reform has been distributing a leaflet in the constituency which states: “Only Reform opposes Labour and Plaid’s £55 million Nation of Sanctuary scheme for asylum seekers.”
However, the vast majority of the £55m has been spent not on asylum seekers, but on refugees from Ukraine who have been fleeing Putin’s brutal invasion of the country. Most of the refugees are women and children.
Yuliia Bond, who spoke this week of how Reform’s xenophobic campaign had made Ukrainians feel they weren’t wanted and should return to their war-torn homeland, said she was outraged by the party’s leaflet.
In a Facebook post she wrote: “Just received this leaflet through the door in Caerphilly: ‘£55 million Nation of Sanctuary scheme for asylum seekers” – is a False Statement.’
“Official figures (Welsh Government, 2025). Total spending under the Nation of Sanctuary programme (2019–2025): almost £55 million. Of this, over £45 million (almost 85%) was used to support Ukrainian refugees. That figure is for the six years. The Welsh Government’s annual budget is £22.4 billion, which means £45 million is nearly 0.04%.”
Ms Bond went on to describe the difference between asylum seekers and refugees: “Asylum seekers are individuals who have applied for protection and are awaiting a decision.
“Refugees are individuals who have been granted protection.
“The Ukrainian arrivals are Individuals who came to Wales under Ukraine schemes fleeing the war, since 2022. They are not classed as asylum seekers.
“Therefore, describing the Nation of Sanctuary as ‘£55 million for asylum seekers’ is misleading and untrue.
“We will be filing a formal complaint to the election authorities regarding this false statement, as it constitutes disinformation in campaign material.”
Criminal offense
Ms Bond said the complaint would go to the election’s Returning Officer Ed Edmunds, who is also the chief executive of Caerphilly County Borough Council.
Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, it is a criminal offence to make a false statement about a rival candidate with a view to gaining electoral advantage.
Ms Bond said: “Our community of refugees is very grateful for the support we have received from the people of Caerphilly, but Reform’s concentration on the Nation of Sanctuary programme is making many feel they are not welcome here.”
Plaid Cymru’s by-election candidate, Cllr Lindsay Whittle said: “I’m absolutely outraged by this. It is gutter politics. I hope people will rise above that: when they go low, we go high.
“I fully support the formal complaint to the Returning Officer. We have to be accurate in what we say as politicians – this sort of behaviour is why people don’t trust politicians.
“It’s a very sad day for me and it makes me very cross. It wasn’t that long ago when hundreds of people in Caerphilly had flags in literally every street to welcome Ukrainian refugees from Putin’s brutal war. There were flags in the windows and children were drawing the Ukrainian flag and putting them up on display.
“What’s going on now is very poor indeed and it’s just not acceptable.”
‘Provoke anger’
Ms Bond said: “The leaflet’s wording was designed to provoke anger and gain votes. If it had stated the truth – that the funding was primarily to support Ukrainian families fleeing war – it would not have generated the same reaction.
“That’s why this kind of language is harmful and manipulative, especially during an election.”
We invited Reform candidate Llyr Powell to comment, but he did not do so.
The by-election is due to take place on October 23.
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Despicable, deplorable and so typical of the far right.
I blame the American Republican Party’s pernicious influence here, every bit as much as our home-grown mean spirited racists.
It’s the S word. [Sanctuary] that riles them.
Apparently it upsets them so much that their brains stop working and they can no longer tell the difference between refugees and economic migrants.
No matter how disgusted you might be with the ‘traditional’ political parties… there is no way in hell these populist low-lifes should be ‘given a chance’
I agree completely. The idea that politicians should at least be factually correct in what they say has completely disappeared, replaced by “alternative truths”.
Politicians have always been guilty of failing to answer questions, but straightforward lying is an unpleasant new development.
The use of “trigger words” has created a new low in dogwhistle politics for those too incoherent to express themselves.
I hope the people of Wales see through this smoke and mirrors act.
Very true.
Let’s say 15% is on asylum seekers. 15% of £55mil is £8.3mil.
The expenses were incurred over 6 years so annualised it averages just over £1.4mil per year.
Shared between roughly 1.9mil working aged people in Wales gives around 72p a year per person or just over 6p per person per month.
If Llyr needs help finding 6p in his monthly budget, I’d be more than happy to go through his expenses with him
Very nicely done. The Reform lie and your mathematical breakdown here need to be front and centre right up to polling day.
Some people are so blinded by hate that they can’t see straight, simple arithmetic is impossible and there is no reasoning with them.
This is a distraction to the major issues that plague Wales under Labour Govts not being discussed which suits Labour and blind Reform rhetoric.
Major issues in the Caerphilly County with lost and future losses of services to many sectors of the community in Caerphilly can be reciprocated in other Welsh parts.
Let Labour and Reform fight out their squabbles, the latest over a press picture of FM and their candidate.
Plaid need to rise above this noise and get out the message of better opportunities for all of Wales people regardless of your background.
Ukrainians in Wales are genuine refugees from a European war, not economic migrants or asylum shoppers. Immigration is not an issue in Wales, and Plaid Cymru are not proposing to flood the country with boat people. Reform UK might have a little more credibility if they looked more closely at Wales’ real problems. Go ahead and vote for them if you want a privatised healthcare system, funding for the Welsh language put on the back burner, and a Welsh Government with no intention of acting in Wales’ interest.
Well said.
Don’t like foreigner’s do they.
Of any colour.
Of any faith.
But farage is happy to employ people who like russian money. The country that is trying to kill its way through Ukraine.
Really, they must know this but still do it. Worse to come from this bunch.
Not sure what their supporters see in these guys.
They peg up for the smell and say it cant be worse, at least. Others are full on I expect. As seen trying to burn hotels with people in them.
farage knows what he is tapping into. If they get power there will be a lot of “told you so”. If we are ever allowed to say that post farage gov. (see USA).
We still have not heard from our newly elected reform councillor in Trowbridge and St Mellons. Looks like something to get used to after they get elected. Silence.
During the miners strike of 1974 there was no helping hand from the hedge fund managers, the stock exchange traders or commodity dealers, those types that are now the leading lights of Reform. The Donbass miners of the Ukrainian sent food parcles to those that needed it in places like Caerphilly. There is a debt to be paid. They need our help now and we can’t walk by on the otherside of the road and ignore them.
If this is what to expected from Reform UK before they enter the Senedd imagine what they’ll do after? Wasn’t suffering seven useless UKip/Brexit AMs a warning back in 2016? If they were competent why were Ukip & Brexit Party kicked out of the Senedd last election. They were paid thousands a year for doing absolute nothing? Also , remember that convicted Russian stooge Nathan Gill was leading the Senedd group at the time. Reform UK ,Ukip & Brexit Party are all one and the same. Do voters understand this? Reform are loose cannons. Those fruit loop racists and fascists… Read more »
It sounds very much to me that some members of Reform (aka former Tories such as Laura Anne Jones) have changed their tune on this (and their accent)
https://youtu.be/o13fjngBz8o?si=Slnlj4skgpsx4xyn
Whenever Trump opens his mouth all we get from him are lies, nonsense or a mixture of both. His pal Farage is continuously aping him and, obviously, so too is Reform’s Caerffili by-election candidate. In my view, his lie about asylum seekers certainly warrants a vigorous legal challenge.
No wonder democracy is dying. Nonsense spoken as truth infecting our every day consumption of media, lies being acceptable in political discourse, and to what end?
Nothing these charlatans are peddling will improve the lives of the people they con into voting for them.
The people of Caerphilly have always had a rep up the valleys of being the nicest and most decent people, what on earth has happened to that place?
Utterly shameful that this guy has a single supporter.