Reform councillor spreads fake news about Palestinian flag
Martin Shipton
A recently appointed Reform UK community councillor has spread a false allegation that Plaid Cymru-controlled Carmarthenshire County Council was flying the Palestinian flag in preference to the Union Jack.
In June 2025 Scott Bayes was co-opted on to Llangunnor Community Council by other councillors. As there were a number of vacant council seats, the public did not have the opportunity to vote, and Mr Bayes was elected unopposed.
The village is close to Carmarthen and includes Dyfed-Powys police headquarters.
In a statement posted on Facebook while he was waiting to see if he would be co-opted, Mr Bayes stated: “I’ve put myself forward to be co-opted onto Llangunnor Community Council, with the final decision being made on June 19.
“There’ve been five vacant seats on the council for a while now, and I wanted to do my bit and get involved – help bring a fresh voice to the table and make sure our community is properly represented.
“I live here in Llangunnor, and at 22, I’d be bringing some much-needed youthful energy to a council that (let’s be honest) could use a few fresh faces!
“If I’m co-opted, I’ll be ready to listen, learn, and be a point of contact for anyone who wants to raise local concerns, share ideas, or just have a chat.”
Nodded through
Mr Bayes did not mention that he was a member of Reform UK, and his co-option was nodded through.
Two months later, on August 18, he posted another message to Facebook in which he made no secret of the fact that he was a Reform UK member.
He wrote: “Carmarthenshire County Council have taken down the British flag to fly the Palestinian flag! (The British flag only went up for VJ Day).
“The only flags that should be flown on council buildings in Wales are the council flag, the British flag and the Welsh flag!!
“Let’s put up the British and Welsh flags right across Carmarthenshire!
“I am LIVID.
“If it remains up, I will be organising a peaceful protest at County Hall. This isn’t on.This is Britain.”
He later added an update: “The Palestine flag has now been taken down. Picture was taken at 17.45. Noticed it had been taken down at 19.10.”
Taken down
However, Mr Bayes was entirely wrong in stating that the flag had been put up by the county council. A spokesperson for Carmarthenshire County Council said: “The council is aware that a Palestine flag was raised at County Hall for a short period of time last night, without the Council’s knowledge or consent. It was taken down as soon as it was spotted by our facilities team.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is a fervent supporter of Israel and its military action in Gaza.
He has denied there is a genocide ongoing in Gaza – and said he would not block any weapons exports to Israel if Reform UK came to power.
Mr Farage has also spoken in favour of US president Donald Trump’s plans for the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, which Israel’s government is looking to move forward.
Writing for GB News in 2024 after Labour suspended around 10% of the UK’s weapon export licences to Israel amid fears that the Jewish state was breaching international law, Mr Farage said: “I feel all over the world that Israel is running out of friends. And I wonder right now, is Israel still really an ally of this country?”
Asked about these comments and to outline his foreign policy on Israel and Palestine, the Reform UK leader said: “It wasn’t whether Israel was an ally of the UK, it’s whether the UK was an ally of Israel …
“My question then was, are we really an ally of Israel’s any more?
“I know that, since then, things have deteriorated and even some of Israel’s strongest friends in the world are asking some quite serious questions.”
Violence
But asked if he were Prime Minister whether he would label Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” or suspend weapons licences, Farage said: “No, I wouldn’t. I think we have to get back to the fundamental fact that what happened on October 7 [2023] was the most appalling violence committed by an organisation who said they will do it again and again and again.”
Since the Hamas attacks of October 7, Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The military siege and offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the population.
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So Garage is a fervent supporter of the evil zionist government responsible for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of a Semitic Palestinian population. What does that make him then?
It makes him a clear anti Semite and even if we take that as meaning only relating to the hatred of Jewish people, which it cannot, we all know about his hissing to replicate gas chambers and singing Hitler youth songs. The Chief Rabbi is strangely silent on Farage but he buried the universal non racist who is Corbyn so why? Farage is Daily Mail 1938. As for his naive 22 year old shoe in foot soldier, he’s going to be taught a harsh lesson when democracy kicks in. If his bogus appointment is not an exercise in reverse psychology,… Read more »
This process of ‘nodding through’ of councillors without an election is absurd. If there is a vacant council seat an election must be help and the constituency must have an opportunity to elect their preferred candidate or party.
This seems to be something of a pattern with community councils in Wales. Their powers are quite limited and, probably as a consequence, they attract little attention from the voters.. One member of our local community council stood down a couple of years back, and the first that I heard of it was that someone else – presumably known to one or more of the remaining councillors – had volunteered to fill the vacancy. There was no election!
Strictly speaking it’s not the “British flag” it’s the imperial flag because the design hasn’t changed since it was flown from the masts of ships forcing opium into China. Other failed empires at least had the decency to change theirs.
Vote Reform at your peril.
Well done Martin.
These people are just trying to divide us they have no answers other than trying to provoke culture war . All of the problems we have with poverty and failing infrastructure in this country the con men bankers and developers who run reform will only make worse. And since you mention it polling shows the majority of the population of this island support and arms embargo on Israel. Why should we arm this slaughter ?
Plaid have nothing to fear from Reform. Everyone who reads the Guardian knows that.
The cynical amongst us would question who exactly put it up in the first place in order for this twerp to garner publicity from it. I wonder if the Counciil has any cctv footage of the culprit..
“False flag” indeed.
He said he saw the flag had been taken down at 1910, that’s a bit late for him to be out isn’t it? Surely his mummy had his tea on by then?
Ah, but did he see it going up, that’s the question. And if he did, did he see who took the Union flag?
And if he did see who took it, will he report them to the police, being as he’s an upstanding member on the tough on crime Reform Party.
1910, those were the days, Britain had an Empire then.
British teatime isn’t the same as Welsh teatime,
British teatime- “What’s for tea Mummy?”.
” Cake and a nice cup of tea, Scott darling.”
Welsh teatime- “What’s for tea Mam?”
“Fish fingers and chips, bach.”
Seems standard behaviour. How are people not seeing the real danger these types present to decent Welsh communities?
The Union Jack is undoubtedly a false/fake banner because there is a clear mis-match between what it purports to represent, the UK, and what it actually represents – England, Scotland and Ireland (all of it). There is no representation of Wales on it. Would Scott Bayes (and the UK government) be so keen to fly it if England wasn’t represented on it?
Further to my comment as to who ran up the Palestinian flag, what happened to the Union flag, is it still in the possession of the Council, has a theft occurred, what aren’t we being told?
Good on them keep The Palestine Flag Flying.
Rather that than the Butchers Apron