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
A Dyfed Powys Police spokesperson said: “Dyfed-Powys Police received a report of suspicious circumstances regarding theft, occurring between Brecon and Radnorshire on Saturday, April 25.
“Unknown suspects have removed and damaged campaigning signs for an election candidate / political party, by spray painting offensive language on the signs and cascading them across the community. Investigations are ongoing.”
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.
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Nothing quite reeks of desperation like canvassing corpses
Looks like Reform are now harassing and intimidating the clergy. Truly pathetic! How low can these pernicious Conservative cretins go? Even the dead aren’t safe in their graves.
Let’s call them what they are: fascists. If then there are people who are not fascist in the party, then they have an opportunity to distance themselves.
Those Conservatives who have willingly joined Reform have clearly stated their move to the dark side.
I’m the priest in this piece. I don’t worry, I don’t scare easily
That’s one more tick box for the vetting form: “The ideal Reform candidate will demonstrate a penchant for desecration and sacrilege”.
As if the police have nothing better to do. I thought wasting police time was a criminal offence.
Only for wheezes not devised in person by Mr Plod.
It’s not a term I like to see used myself because, in reality, people use it to refer to anything that they dislike.
I’m using it here because it is in the language that Reform Saes uses.
Isn’t reporting somebody to the police because they’re annoyed that a law has been broken the very foundation of what Reform Saes would call “woke” or cancel culture”.
I have found that the people who readily use terms like those seem to have the same qualities that they use them to criticise.
There is always a paradox with these supposedly anti-woke people. Scratch them and you discover just a different kind of wholeness.
It’s all part of their cultural Marxism trope, and a clear indication that they are on the far-right/fascist spectrum of politics, though some do subscribe to the trope unaware of its origin, or that it implicates them in something far more sinister than they might realise or wish to be part of.
Another favourite is the “Armist Globalist” tag that they like to attach to people, even though Marx himself was very clearly against globalism. It’s a simple matter of them picking words that they don’t like, mixing more than one of them together and feeling that amplifies how much they are able to despise those words, even if the meaning is not understood by them. I’ve always despised the “fake news” name simply because it makes no sense. If something is news, by definition, it is not fake; it is news. If something is fake, by definition, it is not news… Read more »
Sorry, “Armist Globalist” should have been “Marxist Globalist”, can’t edit the original post.
Creative story writing by Deform again just to stay in the news like Farij campaigning against the closure of Clacton town hall when it isn’t being closed. Just one long log of BS from beginning to end.
‘Desparate’ springs to mind. What did Welsh people ever do to deserve these people?
Scumbags pure and simple
“Some of our signs have been stolen…”
If you believe that, I have a bridge in London you might be interested in buying.
I’m not buying it. Nor your bridge.
Always finding new levels of low to sink to. Absolutely disgusting and vile group of people.
For context, Liam Fitzpatrick has not been a member of the Liberal Democrats since standing against the official Liberal Democrat candidate in 2012.