Questions raised over Reform candidate’s addresses as only local property is a holiday let

Emily Price 

A Reform candidate contesting a north Wales by-election has been accused of misleading voters after listing multiple addresses outside the constituency on election paperwork, including one that is registered as a holiday let.

Retired maths teacher Tony Thomas is standing for Nigel Farage’s party in the Rhyl South county council by-election in Denbighshire on June 25th.

His election leaflets state: “As someone who has lived in Rhyl for 25 years, I refuse to accept the decline we’ve seen in our town.”

However, Nation.Cymru found that Mr Thomas has listed several different addresses on various pieces of election paperwork, with the only address located in Rhyl registered online as a holiday let.

On his Statement of Persons Nominated, Mr Thomas’s address is listed as being in Conwy county.

On his Notice of Appointment of Agents, Mr Thomas lists a Rhyl address.

However, the same address is listed as a holiday property on the Sykes Holiday Cottages website.

At the time of publication, Nation.Cymru found that the two bedroom promenade apartment was available to book on the day of the Rhyl by-election, with additional availability throughout June and the rest of the year.

Mr Thomas is also acting as an agent in the by-election being held in Llanrhaeadr on the same day as the Rhyl vote.

On the Notice of Appointment of Agents for that election, he has listed his address as being in Abergele.

Mr Thomas stood unsuccessfully in the town council by-election in Abergele last year.

In an Abergele community Facebook group post published on June 7, 2025, he said he had been living in the area for three years.

Mr Thomas wrote: “Just to introduce myself, I am standing for the Abergele Pentre Mawr town council on June 19th.

“I have previous experience of being both a town and county councillor.

“Our family moved to Abergele 3 years ago and are settled and happy here.”

A concerned Rhyl local told Nation.Cymru: “My question is, if Mr Thomas is claiming to have been living in Rhyl for the last 25 years, why does all the evidence suggest that he hasn’t and doesn’t currently?

“If he is saying that he has spent 25 years living in Rhyl, but no longer does, why has he not made that abundantly clear?”

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said: “Reform UK have questions to answer yet again following concerns that one of their candidates is misrepresenting themselves to voters.

“There’s a pattern here and voters in Rhyl deserve to know the truth.”

Nation.Cymru sent Mr Thomas a series of questions:

*Where do you currently live?

*If you are claiming on your leaflets that you have lived in Rhyl for 25 years, why does all this evidence suggest that you do not live there currently?

*Do you think you should make it abundantly clear to voters that you don’t live in Rhyl anymore?

We did not receive a response.

Mr Thomas previously contested four elections as a Welsh Conservative candidate.

He was elected to Denbighshire County Council in 2017, winning the Rhyl East ward.

He later stood for the Welsh Conservatives in the 2021 Senedd election, contesting both the North Wales regional list and the Arfon constituency, but was unsuccessful.

A year later, he again stood for the Tories in Rhyl East at the Denbighshire local elections, but failed to retain the seat.

By 2025, Mr Thomas had defected to Reform UK. He contested the Denbighshire County Council by-election in Prestatyn Central that year, finishing third.

He also stood in the Senedd election on 7 May as a Reform UK candidate for the Clwyd constituency.

However, his position at the bottom of Reform UK’s candidate list meant his chances of election were slim, and was ultimately not elected to the Senedd.