Lee Anderson makes surprise appearance in Gwent

Twm Owen – Local Democracy Reporter

Controversial politician Lee Anderson – who became Reform UK’s first MP – made a surprise appearance in Gwent as three councillors joined the party.

The MP had been Conservative deputy chairman but defected to Reform in March when he was suspended from the party after refusing to apologise for claiming Islamists “had control” of London mayor Sadiq Khan.

He addressed supporters at a Cwmbran pub in an event to announced three previously independent councillors had formed a Reform UK group on Torfaen Borough Council.

Councillors Alan Slade and David Thomas, who were both elected in the Llantarnam ward as independents at the 2022 council elections, and Jason O’Connell, who was also elected as an independent in a by-election in February last year, in the same Cwmbran ward, will sit as a group of three on the Labour controlled council.

Foothold

Reform finished second, 7,322 votes behind Labour, in Torfaen at July’s general election and the party led by Nigel Farage now has its first foothold in local government in Wales.

Speaking to reporters Mr Anderson described south Wales as “not dissimilar” to the “red wall” areas in the north of England which turned from Labour to the Conservatives at the 2019 general election.

Asked if Reform is a “brand of Conservatism” the party thinks could win votes in Wales, Mr Anderson replied: “Yes. What’s wrong with that?”

He said it was suggesting “people didn’t know what they were voting for” to ask if voters recognised Reform as a “re-branded Conservative Party.”

Cllr Thomas, who until 2019 had been a Labour councillor when he and Cllr Slade quit the ruling group over a council tax increase, insisted there is no need for the three to face a by-election now they have joined a political party.

“We don’t need a by-election the people of Llantarnam voted for us as individuals. We’re not joining Reform to shove Reform down the neck of the people of Llantarnam, you are still getting the same councillors, we’ll still fight hard for you, still do everything that we normally do, there will be no constraints put on us at all by the Reform Party.”

Cllr Slade said: “You’ve still got the same people, the same energy, the same commitment we don’t feel nothing’s changed, in a way.”

However Cllr Thomas, who stood for Reform under its previous name the Brexit Party at the 2019 election and finished third with more than 5,000 votes, acknowledged the party is looking towards the 2026 Senedd elections.

He answered “absolutely” when asked if it seeking to build a political base with the formation of a council group and claimed its appeal, which helped it to 16.9 per cent of the vote across Wales and a string of second places but no MPs, is due to it “standing for common sense” and “stripping out bureaucracy”.

Farage

Jason O’Connell accepted the party is best known for its leader Nigel Farage but said “it’s our job to change that” and he said he liked its policy of NHS Reform, improving transport and local government reform.

Asked by a reporter if he’d like to see more privatisation of the NHS, Cllr O’Connell who was for a period a Conservative councillor in Torfaen, replied: “Not particularly. I’d like to see better outcomes.”

Cllr Thomas said he isn’t at odds with Reform’s strict immigration policies, and acknowledged it is likely the top issue for those who voted for it, but said he would “have to see the stats” for any impact of immigration on Torfaen.

He and Cllr Slade also both said they supported the Senedd and Welsh devolution but Cllr O’Connell said he was “a bit more on the fence”.

Labour holds 29 of the 40 seats on the council and there is a five member Independent Group, a three member Torfaen Independent Group and now a three member Reform UK Wales group.