Reform attacks Plaid Cymru as candidate labels Israel a ‘terrorist state’

Martin Shipton

Reform UK has criticised Plaid Cymru because one of its Senedd candidates described Israel as a “terrorist state” and Winston Churchill as a “genocidal racist”.

Vivek Thuppil, Plaid’s number six candidate for Bangor Conwy Môn, said people in the UK should be jailed for supporting Israel in the same way the law would jail activists supporting terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

He called Churchill a “genocidal racist” in an online debate about replacing historic figures on UK banknotes.

While Plaid’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth is the favourite to be elected First Minister after the Senedd election on May 7, the party is unlikely to win an overall majority and could do a deal with the Green Party, which is expected to win Senedd seats for the first time.

Dan Thomas, the leader of Reform in Wales, told the right wing Daily Telegraph: “The prospect of a Plaid and Green coalition will worry many families across Wales.

“This coalition, with its unhinged policies, will tear Wales out of the UK and implement woke policies on steroids. The only way to stop them is to vote Reform.”

In a post on the Bluesky social media channel in January 2026, Dr Thuppil, a lecturer in psychology at Bangor University, said: “Israel is a terrorist state. Any support for Israel should be legally proscribed like for any other terrorist entity.”

It is illegal in the UK to invite support for a proscribed organisation. The maximum penalty is 14 years in prison.

In March, Dr Thuppil criticised Churchill on Bluesky after the Bank of England said it would be replacing historic figures on banknotes with native wildlife such as badgers. He wrote: “Churchill was a genocidal racist. Four million people died in the Bengal famine whilst Churchill stockpiled grain for export.

“When a British administrator in Calcutta desperately wrote to Churchill about the situation, Churchill’s response was: ‘Then why isn’t Gandhi dead yet?’ Long live the badger!”

Another Plaid Cymru candidate, Elin Hywel, who is fifth on the party’s list for the Gwynedd Maldwyn constituency, shared a post in 2024 calling Kemi Badenoch a white supremacist “in blackface”.

The post, from author Nels Abbey, said: “Today the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class (in Britain) is likely to be made leader of the Conservative Party.

“Here are some handy tips for surviving the immediate surge of Badenochism (i.e. white supremacy in blackface).”

‘Deflecting’

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “Reform are desperately deflecting from their shambolic campaign, which has seen four candidates drop out in one week – including one candidate who appeared in an image where they appeared to show a Nazi salute. This is a party mired in controversy, lacking judgment, and unfit to represent the people of Wales. Only Plaid Cymru can stop them on May 7.”

In February 2026 the investigative news website Declassified UK revealed that more than 2,000 British nationals served in the Israeli military during its genocide in Gaza.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Israeli army showed that 1,686 British-Israeli dual nationals and a further 383 individuals holding British, Israeli and at least one additional nationality were serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as of March 2025. The combined total stands at 2,069 UK nationals.

The British contingent forms part of a much larger group of foreign nationals serving in the Israeli military. The data indicates that 43,194 dual nationals and 3,913 multi-nationals were enlisted in the IDF, amounting to 47,107 soldiers holding Israeli citizenship alongside at least one other nationality.

The largest cohort comes from the US, with 12,135 US-Israeli dual nationals and 1,207 US multi-nationals — a total of 13,342 Americans. France follows with 6,127 dual nationals and 337 multi-nationals. Significant numbers were also recorded from Russia (5,067), Germany (3,901), Ukraine (3,210), Romania (1,675) and Poland (1,668).

The findings have prompted renewed calls for the UK authorities to examine whether British nationals serving in the IDF were involved in violations of international law during Israel’s military campaign assault in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and is the subject of proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide.

The UK Foreign Office declined to comment on the data, according to Declassified, and confirmed it does not collect information on the number of Britons serving in the IDF.

Legal questions

The publication of the figures also raises wider legal questions. In January 2024, the ICJ stated that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and reminded states of their obligation to prevent such crimes. In July 2024, the court further advised that UN member states must refrain from assisting Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.

Legal observers have also pointed to the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which prohibits British citizens from fighting for a foreign state at war with another state with which the UK is at peace. Campaigners argue that the scale of British participation revealed in the data warrants urgent legal scrutiny.

Imperialistic

On the issue of Winston Churchill, there is no dispute that the wartime Prime Minister held deeply imperialistic, often contemptuous views on India, strongly opposing its independence and believing British rule was essential for preventing anarchy. His administration prioritised war resources over Indian famine relief, significantly worsening the 1943 Bengal famine, and he was known to make racist, insulting remarks about Indian people and leaders.

A review of a biography of Churchill by the Marxist writer Tariq Ali stated: “Ali asserts that Churchill was a racist is indisputable. He has plenty of primary material to sustain this claim. Instead of the usual blurb, the book’s back cover consists of a series of racist and sexist comments attributed to Churchill.

“He informed the 1937 Peel Report on the British mandate in Palestine that First Nations in North America and Australia had been colonised by ‘a stronger race, a higher-grade race’.

“According to former British PM Harold Macmillan, Churchill floated ‘Keep England White’ as a campaign slogan for the 1955 election. Perhaps most damning is the recollection of Churchill’s friend, the politician Violet Bonham Carter: when asked his opinion on China in 1954, he reportedly replied: ‘I hate people with slit eyes and pigtails’.

“For Ali, it is not Churchill’s racist views but the way they informed his policies that demands more attention. In popular memory, Churchill’s leadership in the second world war attracts the most praise. Ali joins a growing body of literature calling for a reassessment of Churchill’s legacy in light of the 1943 Bengal Famine where more than three million Indians starved to death under British administration.

“Churchill’s view that ‘Indians breed like rabbits’ was surely relevant to his decision not to deliver food supplies to Bengal during this famine as a matter of urgency.”