Reform accused of exposing its true agenda ahead of Senedd face covering debate

Emily Price 

Reform’s Senedd group has been accused of Islamophobia ahead of a debate on banning face coverings, amid a scandal over an ITV undercover investigation that exposed racist and degrading language within the party.

On Wednesday (October 21), Reform UK Members of the Senedd will lead a short debate claiming full-face coverings go “against British values”.

It comes after Reform UK’s Deputy Leader in Wales, Laura Anne Jones, wrote on Facebook that the party’s position was “clear: ban the burqa and every other full-face covering in public”.

The debate will have little practical effect because policing and criminal law are not devolved to Wales, meaning the Senedd has no power to introduce such a ban.

On Sunday evening (October 18), ITV Exposure’s Undercover: A Year in Reform showed Reform UK councillors describing Asian families as “parasites” and speaking about female colleagues in crude sexual terms.

One would-be Reform UK MP told an undercover reporter Muslims could not be British and called for asylum seekers to be put in “concentration camps”.

The investigation also exposed former Reform Wales Senedd election candidate Martin Roberts using racist slurs to describe Black people, including “d*rkies” and “four-door saloon, c**n”.

In June, Roberts was given a taxpayer-funded job as a caseworker for Reform MS Jason O’Connell after the pair campaigned together in the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr constituency ahead of the Senedd election.

O’Connell is set to lead the Senedd debate on face coverings this week.

The Reform MS says Roberts no longer works for him but declined to tell Nation.Cymru when his employment ended.

ITV’s undercover investigation also featured Reform UK Powys councillor Karl Lewis taking part in a mock interview during training for aspiring Members of the Senedd.

When Lewis was challenged on sharing controversial material online, including content concerning Muslim migrants, he insisted his views had changed and said Reform’s vetting procedures were robust.

However, after the mock interview, Lewis defended a previously shared post about migrants in Sweden, telling an undercover reporter he had been “ahead of my time”.

Lewis was selected to stand as a candidate for Reform UK in the May Senedd election but failed to win a seat.

He remains a councillor in Powys.

Zaynub Akbar, Plaid Cymru MS for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf, condemned the offensive language caught on camera by ITV’s undercover reporters.

She says the probe exposed the Reform Senedd group’s “true agenda” ahead of Wednesday’s debate on banning face coverings.

Akbar said: “The language in this programme is hateful, and Reform UK should be ashamed of it.

“Last night we heard how Reform UK talks when it thinks nobody is listening.

“On Wednesday, we will hear how it talks when it knows the cameras are on. People should judge Reform UK on both.

“One of its would-be candidates was filmed saying that being Muslim and British is ‘like oil and water’.

“On Wednesday, its MSs will debate what Muslim women can wear. It is the same Islamophobic message.

“No one in Wales should be singled out for their faith or their gender.

“Reform UK says this is about public safety. Its own Deputy Leader in Wales has already told us what it is about: ‘ban the burqa’.”

The Plaid Cymru MS argued that women who wear the burqa are not a threat to anyone, but are often “the ones being threatened”.

Akbar said: “Police already have the powers to deal with anyone who hides their face to commit crime.

“This debate cannot change the law, and was never meant to.

“Muslim women in Wales, myself included, are tired of being made a target. Muslim women feel the effects of debates like this on the bus, at the school gate, at work and online.

“Hate crimes against Muslims have risen by almost 15% in a year in England and Wales.

“Words spoken in our Senedd carry consequences well beyond its walls.

“The man filmed during the Caerphilly by-election was on the same Reform UK ballot paper as the MS leading this debate. Jason O’Connell should tell the people of Wales what checks his party put in place for its own candidates.

“Reform UK claims the people in this programme do not share its values.

“If that is true, its MSs should say so publicly, withdraw this debate and apologise.”

Reform UK says it has opened investigations where activists or members had “clearly behaved inappropriately”, adding there was “no room for racism” in the party.

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