Reform director of comms branded Nation.Cymru journalists ‘vile nats’
Emily Price
Reform UK’s director of communications branded Nation.Cymru journalists “vile nats” and warned senior party figures not to share our articles online, leaked text messages reveal.
Screen grabs from an internal WhatsApp group chat show that on December 26 last year, there was a discussion about whether to amplify a Nation.Cymru article about how Reform’s membership had surpassed the Conservatives.
Suggesting a social media post that could go with our article, regional director for Wales Cllr David Thomas sent a message asking policy manager Mark Reckless if his post idea was ok.
Cllr Thomas wrote: “The oldest party in British politics is crumbling, Reform UK is rising.
“With over 132,949 members, we are now the true voice of the British people.
“This isn’t just a political shift – it’s the birth of a movement to restore British greatness. #ReformUK #RealOppostion.
“This ok @Mark Reckless?”
Before Reckless could respond, comms lead Ed Sumner wrote: “Can we not share Nation.Cymru.
“They are vile nats.”
Cllr Thomas replied: “Yes they are. I like pissing them off. But if you’re not up for it I’ll leave it.”
The Torfaen councillor later went ahead and published the post alongside the Nation.Cymru article on his own X account anyway.
We noted that two months after the message exchange, Cllr Thomas told a Nation.Cymru journalist that he didn’t know who Ed Sumner was.
A Reform UK source told us the messages reveal how much influence Mark Reckless has behind the scenes at the party.
The 54-year-old was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Conservative banner in 2010.
He defected to UKIP in 2014 following several controversies but later lost his Rochester and Strood seat to the Tories.
In 2016, he stood in the Welsh election for the South Wales East seat.
A year later he left UKIP to join the Conservative group in the then Welsh Assembly.
Reckless then sat as an independent Member before becoming the leader of the Brexit Party in Wales.
After attracting criticism over his calls for Wales’ Parliament to be axed, he joined the Abolish the Welsh Assemble Party.
In 2024, Reckless appeared as a guest speaker at Reform UK’s Welsh conference.
It was later confirmed that he would be working on Reform’s policies for Wales at the 2026 Senedd election.
A Reform UK source said: “Mark has been falling over himself to be head honcho for Nigel.
“But HQ has always had an eye on all the baggage he brings, flip-flopping between all those different parties all the years back.
“There’s no way he could be back in the public eye with that and being back in the Senedd would be painful for everyone. Deep down he knows it like we all do.
“But Mark wants to be above Dave Thomas and back in a power seat in Cardiff Bay so he loves making Thomas his tea boy.”
The leaked WhatsApp messages come amid concerns about Reform UK’s treatment of the media in Wales.
Last week, Nation.Cymru revealed that Ed Sumner had branded journalist and podcaster Will Hayward a “cunt” in a group chat after he questioned why the party hadn’t elected a Welsh leader.
It came after Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage hit out at BBC Wales accusing the organisation of left-wing bias because its interim director of nations Rhuanedd Richards had previously worked for Plaid Cymru.
In recent weeks, we also reported how Reform UK barrister Adam Richardson had tried to bully Nation.Cymru with threats of legal action.
Richardson claimed Nation.Cymru had breached Sumner’s right to privacy after we named him as implicated in the events that led to the suspension of his former employer, Reform MS Laura Anne Jones, from the Senedd.
In June last year, we had reported how Sumner had sent “sickening” messages about immigration, diversity and “gays” to a Tory group chat when he worked as a senior advisor to Jones.
Reform’s various attacks on the media led to the National Union of Journalists in Wales releasing a statement condemning the party’s “unacceptable” behaviour.
At the weekend, Cllr David Thomas continued to hit out at the Welsh media.
In a post to X, the Torfaen councillor – who oversaw the party’s failed Caerphilly by-election campaign – described Welsh journalists as “pet bloggers” who couldn’t stop “obsessing” over him and his colleagues.
He wrote: “The more they write, the more desperate they look and the more obvious it becomes that they’re terrified of what’s coming.”
Cllr Thomas later published a second post claiming the Welsh media was “racist” because it “protects” Plaid Cymru’s “anti-English agenda”.
He added: “If ANY other party tolerated this kind of bigotry, it would be a national scandal. But because it’s Plaid, the media say nothing.
“It’s hypocrisy. It’s hostility. It’s racism plain and simple.”
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Utter scum. I can’t wait to see these English Nationalists run out of Wales.
All you lovely folk at nation.cymru can flip these vile insults from these lowlifes and wear them as badges of honour. You are all amazing for showing us how nasty, despicable and horrible these deform lot are. Especially now that everyone can see and hear how nasty their leaders were both Nathan and Farage, it is no wonder they all behave so poorly and with no etiquette or manners.
Said the vile nats.
Attacked from both sides on the same day…we could find ourselves ‘proscribed’ for putting the fear of Plaid and its secret language up No 10 and placing Farage on a symbolic wooden horse and seeing this tool of Twmp’s USA exposed to public humiliation everywhere he takes his nasty little circus…
‘Restore Britain’s Greatness!’? Nauseating. Can someone tell of the ‘boat people’ Hengist and Horsa?
So Welsh nationalism bad but British nationalism good? Isn’t that like fighting fire with fire? Sheer hypocrisy.
The vilest nationalists by far are Reform members and supporters – they are extreme right wing English nationalists. Reform is the most anti-Wales and anti-Welsh of all the political parties and want England – with 84% of our MPs – to continue to totally dominate the UK forevermore. Thankfully an increasing proportion of the people of Wales are waking up to the serious threat they pose to the existence of our country Wales, albeit gradually.
The English against immigration, from the country named after earlier immigrants!
funny.
Putins useful idiots. Polishing their jackboots.
So how can farage not know his best mate in Wales was taking bribes. And none of the reform types have said what gill said was wrong. So gill took a bribe to denigrate Ukraine, farage did the same effectively…. funny that that.
They don’t like being held to account for their nonsense much, do they?
Ed Sumner and tea-bag men Thomas and Carlson are real ASSETS !
At least Plaid’s politicians can now come out and call Thomas a liar in the public domain. After all, if the vile BritNat took them to court for slander, he’d have to provide hard evidence in a court of law that backs up his claim that Plaid is on fact anti-Englosh, which simply doesn’t exist. Let’s not forget, many of Plaid’s members are English, including one of its MPs.
Next up they’ll be campaigning for the entire Welsh nationalist movement to be proscribed as “terrorists.”
A classic case of villain playing victim. These spineless cry-bullies don’t like it up ’em do they?
These traitors to Wales are being exposed as the pond life that they really are. Who can forget the scumbags in Voice of Wales standing on a bridge over the A470 telling everyone that Reform were going to win by an absolute landslide in Caerphilly 🤣. How did that work out for the English wannabe knuckle draggers
Sticks and stones ……… Reform UK’s Ed Sumner calling Nation Cymru journalists “vile nats” is a tad ironic seeing the vast amount of Reform councillors & party members removed from office in disgrace due to racism. And less we forget. Their cult leader Nigel Farage’s racist and antisemitic accusations made whist at Dulwich collage in the 1970s & 80s toward fellow pupils, and the testament from his English teacher revealed in the 2013 Ch4 documentary. And what about the parties Farage led in the EU parliament. Both UKip & Brexit party trolled wrapping themselves in the Union Flag. So anyone… Read more »
Nation.Cymru branded as ‘Nats’!
Yes, the clue is in the name. An indigenous news service standing up for the Nation of Cymru. Investigative journalism understandably concerns Ed Sumner, considering the multitude of offences by Reform racists, drug dealers, fraudster, etc.
Considering the moral and ethical standards we have in our country, maybe he should have chosen another country to migrate to, there are a few suitably devious options around the world these days.
Have a look at the last 2 sentences of the social media post Cllr Thomas wanted to put out and replace ‘British’ and ‘Britain’s’ with ‘German’ and ‘Germany’s’ and see who it reminds you of?
If these are the representatives of ‘British greatness’ then how embarrassing. I didn’t envisage what the death throes of the British Empire would look like but here it is. Hopeless tactics of projecting their own undeniable all encompassing racism is doomed to fail. They cannot hate everyone around them and survive. They are taking on the silent majority, a body of people so huge that it can never be defeated.
The big mistake people are continuing to make is that they are hurling hurty words at Reform. Reform doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter to them. Reform needs to be exposed – and destroyed – through scrutiny of its policies. What is its plan (and details) for the NHS in Wales? Education? The economy? Transport? I dread to think what those plans are but this is where you cause the most damage.
Who cares what Reform thinks. It’s voters that want to know more about who they are voting for. Those that say “it can’t be any worse” will realise it can be far worse. Just as those who voted for Brexit because “it can’t be any worse” would now give anything to have the happy days of 2016 back.
Well said.
Reckless’ Wikipedia entry describes him as a ‘former politician‘, i.e. yesterday’s man.
In political circles he’s what’s known as a ‘party animal’, namely someone who has changed allegiances several times. In his case he started out as a Conservative, switched to UKIP, then back to the Tories, followed by the Brexit Party, the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party and now the Farage Fan Club currently known as Reform UK Ltd.
“This ok @Mark Reckless?”
Suggests he’s the brains of the “Welsh” operation.
Much like their supporters, just another has been with a victim mindset trying to make himself look edgy and relevant. Pathetic.