Police probe as Reform candidate clashes with priest over campaign posters on graveyard gates

Emily Price

Police officers have been called to investigate after a Reform UK Senedd election candidate launched into a row with a local priest over campaign posters placed on the gates of a church graveyard.

Reverend Richard Wooten published a post to the Brecon and Radnorshire community Facebook group on Monday (27 April) complaining that posters promoting Reform UK had been fixed to the gates of Llanfaes Church in Brecon.

“No political placards are permitted on Church property,” Revd Wooten wrote.

Iain McIntosh – a Powys councillor and Reform’s number two Senedd election candidate in Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd – replied to the post with a screen grab of a private message he had sent the priest.

The message stated: “After internal investigations, I can confirm nobody from our party put signs up on or near the church (or indeed any churches anywhere).

“We believe this has been carried out by someone who knows the placement of election signs on religious buildings would cause outrage, so I’m getting the police involved to investigate this issue and hopefully identify the culprit/s.

“Please do not dispose of the placards/signs or allow anyone else to touch them until the police have seen them. Thank you.”

Forbidden

Alongside the screen grab of the message, Cllr McIntosh wrote: “Hi Rich, as discussed with you earlier, this was not carried out by our party.

“The placement of political signs/banners/notices on religious buildings/property should be forbidden by all parties.

“Some of our signs have been stolen – this has been reported to the Police, and as discussed earlier, we are asking the Police to investigate this matter too, to see if there is a connection.”

The Reform Senedd election hopeful then published a further response to the priest saying: “I have just spoken with Dyfed Powys Police, they will be in touch with you soon to see the photos of what has been posted, and to examine the placards/posters to see if they are the same as the ones we had stolen.”

Grave

But members of the online group suggested that Reform supporters in Brecon were responsible for placing the posters on the gates of the church graveyard.

Liam Fitzpatrick – a former Liberal Democrat Councillor – called for Reform UK to issue an apology after he came across the signs while visiting his wife’s grave in the church’s grounds at the weekend.

In a post to Facebook, Mr Fitzpatrick wrote: “Very angry to see Reform posters placed on graveyard gates at Llanfaes church today.

“Obviously church knew nothing about it. Reform should have more manners – keep politics out of graveyards on Sunday mornings when we want to visit our loved ones that have passed away.

“Let’s see how long it takes for Reform to apologise.”

In response, Reform’s Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd branch published a statement to Facebook stating it was not responsible for the posters.

‘Inappropriate’

The branch wrote: “An ex Liberal Democrat and Independent County Councillor has alleged that Reform UK placed election posters/signs on the graveyard gate to Llanfaes Church in Brecon.

“We want to make it clear that we take this matter very seriously.

“The signs that were allegedly placed are not official Reform UK material. We did not place these signs.

“We did not authorise or approve of the placement of these signs. The signs were not created by Reform UK, they appear to be home made.

“All political parties understand that placing campaign material on buildings of any religion is inappropriate and insensitive.

“Any signs displayed in this way risk damaging the reputation of the party they promote and show a lack of respect for those communities and the church.

“We are determined to establish who is responsible for producing and placing these signs, we have therefore reported the matter to Dyfed-Powys Police

“If you saw these signs being placed, have a photo of the signs in place, or saw the signs in place before 11am on Sunday morning, please get in touch, or contact Dyfed-Powys Police using incident number DP-20260425-227.

“If you live in the area and have any doorbell camera footage of someone in the area with these signs, please contact the Police directly.”

Police

Reform’s Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend branch chimed in, adding a message to the post suggesting the posters may have been put up by political opponents seeking to undermine Reform UK’s campaign.

Revd Wooten said the church would not be pursuing the matter with the police.

However, Reform hit back saying that messages circulated by the priest and others had implied the group was responsible for the signage, and that the party would now pursue the matter itself.

Former Lib Dem Liam Fitzpatrick published a further post to Facebook on Wednesday (April 29) saying police had been in touch with him.

He wrote: “Church gate continues. I have just been in touch with police as I was informed that Reform were going to report me for advising that I was annoyed about their signs on a church graveyard gate and Reform are asking for a forensic examination of the signs and the gate in question.

“I was also advised from a colleague that Reform believed I manufactured the signs and placed them there and it was because I was previously a County Councillor in Powys – 5 years ago and that a prospective candidate was advising people of this on social media.

“Obviously I wanted to clear this with the police as I was solely visiting my wife’s grave and am not involved in politics at any level – nor am I a paid up supporter of any party.

“A national newspaper has also been in touch and may run the story this weekend… the police of course were very polite but told me I think to just go away.

“Still awaiting Reform’s apology.”

Stolen

It comes after Reform’s lead candidate in Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd, James Evans, threatened to all the police after some of his Reform campaign placards in Powys were damaged and stolen.

Last week, Nation.Cymru published an image taken around five years ago of Evans posing on a drunken night out with a defaced Liberal Democrat placard.

Dyfed Powys Police and the Welsh Liberal Democrats were invited to comment.