Reform denies crisis after leader quits and MS defects to Plaid Cymru
Nation.Cymru staff
A senior Reform UK figure has denied the party is in crisis after its Welsh leader stood down following his arrest and one of its Senedd members defected to Plaid Cymru.
Llŷr Powell, Reform UK Wales’ chief whip, acknowledged it had been a “tough” period for the party but said its MSs would continue their work as the Senedd’s largest opposition group.
Dan Thomas announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down as Reform’s Welsh leader for “personal reasons” after being arrested on suspicion of assault and engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour.
Gwent Police said the 45-year-old, from the Aberbargoed area, was arrested on Sunday and had been bailed pending further enquiries. Mr Thomas said he had been released without charge and stressed that he had “done nothing wrong”.
Speaking on ITV Cymru Wales’ Sharp End, Mr Powell said: “It’s been a bit of a processing moment. It’s quite tough when it’s someone you’ve worked with as well.
“There’s a case going on so it’s hard to go into details but I think Dan has made the decision that he didn’t want what he’s going through at the minute to be an issue for the party and the role we’ve got in the Senedd in holding the government to account.
“There’s a real issue here with the family and that’s quite upsetting for anyone so for us it’s just about picking ourselves up and continuing the job that we’ve got.”
The upheaval intensified on the same day when Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, who was elected for Reform in Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg in May, announced she was leaving to join Plaid Cymru.
Ms Cooper-Lesadd accused Reform of having “no interest” in governing Wales and claimed there was “deep unhappiness” within its Senedd group.
‘Harsh’
Asked on Sharp End whether Reform was now in crisis, Mr Powell replied: “That’s a bit harsh.
“Me and my colleagues were in the chamber today, we were contributing, we were doing what we had to do.”
He added: “I find it really puzzling that someone elected on a unionist ticket could the day after the government shared a platform with Sinn Fein then cross the floor.”
Mr Powell was referring to a meeting in Cardiff on Monday between Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, SNP leader John Swinney and senior Sinn Féin figures including Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald.
The parties signed an agreement pledging cooperation and supporting the right of their respective nations to determine their constitutional futures.
Mr Powell confirmed Reform’s 33 remaining MSs will choose Mr Thomas’s successor, with the process beginning on Wednesday.
Asked by fellow Sharp End panellist and Labour MS Huw Thomas whether Nigel Farage would select the new Welsh leader, Mr Powell said: “No, the group is – we’re having a vote internally within the group.”
He had earlier said a new leader was expected to be in place by the end of September.
Mr Thomas was appointed Reform UK’s Welsh leader in February and went on to lead the party into May’s Senedd election, when it won 34 of the expanded parliament’s 96 seats and became the largest opposition group.
He will remain in the Senedd representing Casnewydd Islwyn and has said he will support whoever succeeds him as leader.
Defection
Ms Cooper-Lesadd’s departure reduces Reform’s Senedd group to 33 MSs and increases Plaid Cymru’s representation from 43 to 44.
Explaining her decision, she said: “Reform has no interest in the work I came here to do. They are not serious about governing Wales.
“They are far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than in finding solutions.
“There is a real appetite in the group to want the government to fail, and no interest in what that failure would mean for the people we represent.”
‘Staging post’
She also claimed Reform’s Senedd group was a “staging post” in Nigel Farage’s attempt to reach Downing Street.
The double blow came as polling suggested Reform’s support among Welsh voters for a Senedd election had remained relatively stable.
The latest Barn Cymru poll for ITV Cymru Wales put Plaid Cymru on 32% and Reform on 27%, down one and two percentage points respectively since May. The polling was conducted between September 7 and 13, before Mr Thomas’s resignation and Ms Cooper-Lesadd’s defection.
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So Dan Thomas isn’t stepping down as an MP? Shameful but not surprising. Not sure how he thinks that won’t still cause problems for Deform
He’s not an MP.
Reform IS in crisis. They lie so much they can’t see reality anymore.
If he stepped down as an MS, under the current dreadful system, Reform get to put forward someone to replace him with no election.
On the current dreadful system as you put it a person who is elected based on a vote for a party can then jump ship, regardless of party for whom those votes were placed not an individual who had no personal vote.
I would say the same no matter what party or individual is involved, I made this point during the consultation as well.
This system disenfranchises voters of any party.
Remember who foisted this system on us; Labour assumed it would be to their advantage. It wasn’t – but we’re lumbered with it now.
The staging post bit is visible from space and I expect the “vote” has one person voting, Farage.
Crashing things is what Farage is paid to do. Nothing else. Want evidence? See his lies over brexit.
A nation mourns …
… or something like that.
Couldn’t find anyone better than Llyr Powell, who lost to Plaid’s Lindsay Whittle by 3,848 votes (11.4%) at last year’s Caerphilly by-election? How embarrassing.
What will it say if Farage installs the man he calls “Welsh Dave”?
Unlikely after he dared to speak “foreign” during that infamous joint press conference in Caerphilly. Who can forget the sinister hard stare he got from Nigel.
Thomas’s Tory colleague former Mayor of Barnet Brian Coleman had this to say yesterday on “x”
“Many Councillors and ex Councillors in Barnet recalling being bullied by Dan Thomas during his Barnet Leadership days this afternoon !”
The lad has some form
Poor old Powell
He needs to choose his company better having been former aide to jailbird Nathan Gill
It’s quite impressive how they’ve managed to go from a “little bit embarrassing” to “complete and utter laughing stock” in such a short space of time.
When you’ve reached the bottom of the politics barrel, and you’re too useless for the Tories, Reform looks like the place to be.
Reform are indeed in chaos. Jacket potato Llŷr Powell can deny it all he likes, but this has been confirmed by a Reform whistleblower, not to mention they are shedding support like a tree its leaves. It’s their very own winter of discontent. May it long continue!