Reform accused of having no interest in Welsh speakers as Farage pledges to scrap one million target
Emily Price
Reform UK have been accused of having no interest in the Welsh language or communities after Nigel Farage pledged to abolish Labour’s one million Welsh speakers by 2050 target.
In a video posted to X by Reform on Monday (June 23) Clacton MP Farage said: “Tell me a single government target that ever gets met?
“I’m bored with government targets – we are going to half this, double that.
“None of them ever get met. So encourage the language, yes by all means. Put out meaningless targets? I can’t frankly see the point of it.
“We’ve had decades of this, new governments, governments half way through.
“Targets, targets, targets. Not a single one being met – and no one believes them anyway.”
‘Unrealistic’
Sharing the clip, Reform Wales said: “Just 17.8% of people in Wales speak Welsh, down from 19% a decade ago.
“The Welsh Government should protect the language but it’s time to drop unrealistic targets.
“Let’s back practical support, not fantasy goals. Welsh language should be encouraged, not forced.”
The Welsh Government’s ‘Cymraeg 2050’ strategy has a target of one million Welsh speakers by the year 2050 – along with a doubling of the daily use of the language by then.
The goal is part of the government’s broader plan to increase the use of the Welsh language and promote its vitality.
Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith says that by pledging to scrap Welsh language targets, Reform is pledging to “oppose accountability”.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Chair, Joseff Gnagbo, said: “Reform hasn’t announced any proposals or policies regarding the Welsh language, our communities or culture, and are only interested in abolishing the target of reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
“Targets like this mean that organisations such as the Government can be pressured to reach them and can be held accountable.
“Opposing targets is like opposing accountability – exactly what parties like this want. They clearly have no interest in the Welsh language or our communities and there is no room for parties like this in Wales.”
‘Linguistic significance’
He added: “Welsh is Wales’ own language, and everyone has the right to speak it. This isn’t a matter of encouraging or forcing the Welsh language, but of creating conditions for it to be a community language that people can use every day, and of normalising it.
“That is why we are calling for the Welsh Language Measure to be used to its full extent by introducing Standards in all possible areas, and expanding the Welsh Language Measure to include private sector bodies, such as banks and supermarkets, etc.
“We’re also calling for the creation of areas of higher density linguistic significance in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities, so that local authorities can put specific policies in place to protect and restore the Welsh language as a community language.
“We encourage all parties to adopt these calls and to implement them following next year’s election.”
Concern over the decline in the number of people who can speak the language has been a key political issue in Wales for decades.
The 2021 census showed the lower proportion of Welsh speakers ever.
It’s estimated that around 538,000 people (17.8% of the population) in Wales can speak Welsh compared to 562,000 in 2011 (19% of the population).
A 2024 YouGov poll found that two-thirds of people approve of efforts to increase the language’s usage.
Reform UK was invited to comment further but declined.
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This chap needs his own comic strip on here, call it the Goon Show…
He’s already got one of his bootlickers here, we don’t need the full set.
Farage isn’t a patch on Sellers, Secombe and Milligan.
He needs a history lesson and realise the importance of the Welsh language to the nation of Wales. I wonder if he would extend his stance on immigration policy to the Welsh language itself.
You need those little grey cells Poirot was so fond of to play…
He just has the reptilian, food, kill, eat, brain stem,
I’ve known one or two nice crocodiles…ha ha ha…
If they get to do this, it’ll be the first step on a very dark path.
The abolish wing of the party is openly anti-Cymraeg and they’re prepared to say that bit out loud. What would they like to do, but don’t feel comfortable saying out loud (yet)?
You just can’t be both pro-Wales and pro-ReformUK – it’s like being pro EU and voting Farage – the two aren’t compatible.
I think Reform has both an anti-devo wing of muscular unionists and also a pro-devo wing of Atlanticists that possibly even want further devolution because they want US-style federalism.
Next year’s election will be between Hope and oblivion, independence and decimation of our culture and language. There’s no grey area, like with a usual election, it’s either black or white. If you are reading this as an undecided voter who loves Cymru – vote Plaid Cymru and save that country you love.
He will bring in the Welsh Not.
How can you ‘force’ anyone to speak Welsh?
No surprise. Reform may style itself as a ‘British’ patriotic national political movement, but in actual hard reality it’s an English one.
Their failure to embrace indigenous British culture suggests they might be anti-British extremists.
I don’t really buy that, because my sense is rather that their vision of ‘Britishness’ is a sort of modern extension of Henry VIII’s back in the 1530s and ’40s, when he engineered the acts of union..
That being an identification of nationality with an acceptance of wholly dominant ‘Englishness’ in which people are wholly free to use whatever language and cultural practices they choose in their private sphere, but are compelled to accept that in the public sphere the prevalent language of English, and English cultural assumptions as well, are to be unquestioningly predominant.
Henry VIII was one of the worst things to happen to this island. It’s no coincidence that Johnson and Cummings modelled themselves on Henry and Cromwell.
Possibly Edward I was arguably worse, from a Welsh perspective at any rate?!
All Edward achieved was to change the way governance in Wales worked. He lost the battle of hearts and minds, which is why he bankrupted England endlessly building castles which still stand as monuments to his failure to abolish Wales. Meanwhile Henry invented poverty and homelessness by abolishing the monasteries that educated and took care of the poor. By stealing their wealth and using it to build the King’s schools he created a private school system to breed a ruling class in his own image, gaslight history and keep the masses away from their own governance. Or what we now… Read more »
You offer an arguable case in respect of both monarchs, though I suggest you might be overly generous towards Henry VIII!
For sure, he did endow quite a few schools – as in Abergavenny, I believe; but for the most part he sequestered the monastic houses merely to settle crown debts to the aristocracy and to buy their loyalty by conferring former monastic estates upon them.
A legacy which endures right into the present – think of the likes of ‘Downton Abbey’!
I can’t see the point of Nigel Farage. He should clear off back to Clacton and do the job he’s paid for, most of his constituents will have forgotten what he looks like.
Very little money in that, hence why he chooses to do other things with his time. Only cares about filling his pockets.
Don’t just worry about Nige himself, worry about his supporters. They’re just as dangerous.
The mask is slipping Nigel to reveal your true intentions. Reform UK like the Brexit Party and Ukip before are Anti-Devolution and Anti-Welsh language. Who can recall the 2016 Nigel Farage appointee in the then Welsh Assembly, Ukip group leader Gareth Bennett, who made numerous derogatory comments about the Welsh and suggested scrapping the 1 million Welsh language target again suggested by Nigel Farage and Reform UK in 2025. They are merely regurgitating old policies. He & they are a threat to Wales, the Welsh language , culture and Senedd democracy. If he wants a fight , bring it on.… Read more »
The scary thing is, I genuinely think Nige wants a civil war in the UK. He played the UK straight into Russias hands by duping people into Brexit so most safety nets have been removed.
Now his actions that are blatantly an attempt to cause civil unrest will leave the door wide open for Russia to do as they please.
Targets are not pointless, they are used to hold governments to account. If you have none, how do you scrutinise their actions and strategy? Very dangerous rhetoric.
How has scrutiny gone so far, a decline in language users no discernable steps to increase users and by that not learn in school then never use it in social situations.
There is a lot of tinkering but no real drive.
The language portfolio is a bit part of someone else’s main portfolio.
Give it the prominence it deserves, then we may see real change in take up in all settings.
Will he be abolishing NHS waiting list targets? Of course not, he needs them to justify abolishing the NHS.
This also plays well with the economic incomers, especially those with children and grandchildren, who see Cymru as a twee version of England. A bit like the ‘ex-pats’ in Spain, they want out of England to somewhere new, but they want everything on their terms, and that includes English over Cymraeg (which they see as frivolous). Farage knows this, indeed this is how he thinks, and he’ll push back on the Welsh language at every opportunity. I can hear his rhetoric now “do you want Welsh lessons or more bobbies on the beat?”.
This article right here shows why the Welsh shouldn’t just be wary of reform, but also their voters and supporters.
A person who supports reform in Wales is one who completely disrespects culture, traditions and normal decency. Would you want this type of person in your area?
If they don’t even possess basic human decency, what other awful things are they taking part in?
Reform has no interest in the Welsh language? This is correct, however. All the chickens are coming home to roost. The welsh people will have their say.
He’s not only said he’s going to remove our democracy, he’s now onto our language. He’s probably the most dangerous and deviant politician to ever land on our shores.
If Reform take over in England, then how Cymru votes will make no difference because UK governments are decided in England; but Farage will be unable to put the Welsh language back in its box, unless his agents win the Senedd, which is not going to happen.
“I’m bored with gov targets, none of them ever get met” says the man who promised to leave the country if Brexit was a failure, but still he remains, still spouting garbage.
Great piece for Independence Day in the Graun yesterday about the delusional gap between the promise and the reality.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/24/daniel-hannan-day-celebrates-his-chronicle-of-brexit-idiocy-foretold
By now, a ringleader foretold, Birmingham and Leeds would be global financial capitals, Hoxton would have superseded Silicon Valley as the global centre for tech, and Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands would’ve followed us out.
Reform wants to plant the idea in people’s heads that the Welsh language is a “waste of money”. It is targeting the areas which generally have low concentrations of Welsh speaking. Notice that Reform largely targets the mainly English speaking Valleys, he doesn’t seem to have much interest in Ceredigion or Gwynedd. Farage thrives by creating resentment then exploiting the people who sit on his side of the divide by claiming he’s the only one standing up for them.
I find it ludicrous that anyone thinks plaid cymru would change anything for the better for Wales, they’re as useless as Welsh labour but speak a different language.
Cyfrifoldeb ni’r Cymry yw sicrhau dyfodol ein hiaith a’n diwylliant. Efallai ein bod yn rhy barod i ddefnyddio Saesneg er hwylustod. Mae’n rhaid i ni frwydro dros ein hiaith drwy’r amser.
Mae ein llywodraeth wedi gosod targed o filiwn o siaradwyr Cymraeg erbyn y flwyddyn 2050, ond nid yw hyn yn esgus i ni ar lawr gwlad laesu dwylo. Ein dyletswydd yw defnyddio’r Gymraeg ar bob achlysur posib. Gyda’n gilydd, byddwn yn gallu chwalu pob cynllun Farage a’i griw o labystiau i ladd ein hiaith.