Reform branded ‘insensitive’ over campaign mail to Caerphilly residents on day of late MS’s funeral
Emily Price
Reform UK has been branded “insensitive” after residents in Caerphilly received a letter signed by Nigel Farage urging them to vote for his party on the same day mourners gathered for the funeral of Senedd Member Hefin David.
The letter told locals of how Welsh Labour had “failed” them on jobs, the NHS and immigration.
It included a survey asking respondents to support Reform UK by putting up campaign posters and garden boards or by delivering party leaflets.
The campaign material – signed off with the printed signature of Reform’s leader Nigel Farage – also included details of how to donate money to the party.
The mail-out included a return envelope with a Caerphilly address printed on the front.
It arrived through the letter boxes of residents on the day hundreds of people gathered for the funeral of the late Hefin David.
‘Dedicated’
The Caerphilly Labour MS described as a “dedicated public servant” was found unresponsive at his home in Nelson on August 12.
It was later confirmed at an inquest hearing that the 47-year-old was found hanging the day before his 48th birthday.
The father of two was first elected as an MS for Caerphilly in 2016 and was re-elected for the seat in 2021.
He was also a Caerphilly councillor for a decade.
On August 18, the Senedd’s speaker – Elin Jones – formally declared Mr David’s Caerphilly constituency seat vacant.
A by-election is expected to be held within the next three months.
‘Crass’
Welsh Conservative politician Richard John branded Reform’s campaign letters “crass” adding that other parties had paused campaigning following news of Mr David’s sudden death.
He said: “It is incredibly insensitive that on the very day Caerphilly came together to pay its respects to Hefin David, residents were receiving political mail from Reform UK asking for poster sites and donations.
“While every other mainstream party has shown respect by pausing campaigning, Reform UK appears to have chosen to press ahead with a mass mail-out, using the address of a new high street office to push a cynical agenda.
“This should be a clear red flag for local people. Reform UK’s behaviour is crass and disrespectful and shows they are more interested in fuelling Nigel Farage’s personality cult than standing up for the people of Caerphilly.”
We asked Reform UK why the party hadn’t paused campaigning in Caerphilly as other parties had following the news of Mr David’s death.
We did not receive a response.
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Utterly callous but it’s what we should expect from a party that has never shown any compassion for anyone.
I don’t think they have any heart actually beating between them to actually care.
Total scum.
Reform is a far right English Nationalist party – more Tory than the Tories. It is sufficiently unprincipled, disrespectful and coarse to deliver canvassing leaflets in Caerphilly on the very day of the funeral of Hefin David MS, who died in such tragic circumstances. There is ample evidence showing that for Nigel Farage and his party only England and the English language really matter. Hopefully the people of Caerphilly won’t be hoodwinked into believing that Reform will safeguard anything whatever relating to Wales if they get a foothold in the Senedd.
No surprise of course. Reform UK is an odious, racist, right-wing English Nationalist party, that couldn’t care less for anyone who doesn’t support their own warped ideology.
Blokes a hateful sod.
Where is he today anyway? Oh yeah, making up stories for the US committee he is speaking to. UK used to deal with people that dealt with hostile powers with arrest.
None of his troops in the HoC today either. Rather important statement from Jess Phillips on child rape, one of the very few drums they seem to bang.
Grifting vultures acting like grifting vultures. Appallingly distasteful and borderline predatory conduct.
I loathe Farage and his ghoulish party, but even I find it hard to believe that this was done with calculation. Reform UK isn’t an authentic political party with a membership; it’s just a limited company in which Farage himself is the majority shareholder. And Farage lives in England’s south-east, and probably neither he nor the people who act for him had any idea as to when Hefin David’s funeral was due to take place.
But probably Farage wouldn’t have cared greatly even had he done so, because, like his hero Trump, power is his prime concern. Nothing else figures.
Conservative cretin Nigel Farage has history of doing this sort of thing. So I’m not surprised one iota this ghoul did this stunt. He has zero respect for the family of the late Hefin David. None at all. Below contempt.
Shows them up exactly for what they are which is a million miles away from the values of the vast majority of decent people in Caerphilly and Wales for that matter
Masonic jolly boys MacKinnon, Sumner and Powell working their magic yet again!
No surprise!
Don’t anyone kid themselves. Any party purporting to drag the UK out of the ECHR hates EVERYBODY BAR NONE. No recourse to justice, no right to a peaceful family life, not even the right to a peaceful funeral. No rights at all, full stop. This goes for everyone, yes even you, Toryform MPs, future candidates, voters, supporters the lot.
This pretty much sums up the mindset of them and their supporters.
I’d feel far safer having a hotel full of refugees, than one reform supporter close by.