Reform MS blasts Plaid motion despite backing it himself

Emily Price

The Welsh Conservatives have ridiculed a Reform MS who attacked them for supporting a Plaid Cymru motion – despite having done the same himself.

Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd MS Iain McIntosh lashed out at the Tories following a key Senedd vote on Plaid Cymru’s flagship childcare policy.

The proposal would provide 20 hours of universal childcare a week for children aged between nine months and four years.

Reform led a debate in the Senedd on Wednesday (June 12) in a bid to force Plaid to publish the full costings of its childcare plan along with a detailed timetable for its implementation within the party’s first 100 days in government.

However, Reform’s motion failed to pass and a Plaid amendment got through instead – with both receiving Tory support.

The final motion included a point which attacked Reform UK for not including any childcare commitments in its own manifesto.

Bizarrely, Mr McIntosh and 10 fellow Reform MSs also backed the amended motion.

Despite having voted for it himself, the former Conservative later shared an AI-generated image on X portraying First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth tucked up in bed with Conservative leader Darren Millar.

“Vote Conservative, get Reform UK,” Mr McIntosh wrote.

The Tories in Cardiff Bay responded by publishing a screenshot of the Senedd voting record showing that Mr McIntosh had backed the same motion as them.

In a post to X, the Welsh Conservatives wrote: “This is Iain McIntosh. He voted for Plaid Cymru’s motion, then attacked us for doing the same. Don’t be like Iain.”

Why a third of Reform’s MSs voted for a motion that criticised their own party remains unclear.

Reform’s higher profile Senedd Members – such as leader Dan Thomas, James Evans, Laura Anne Jones, Jason O’ Connell and Chief Whip Llyr Powell – voted against the final motion.

However, Mr McIntosh, Andrew Griffin, Art Wright, Carmelo Colasanto, David Mills, Gareth Thomas, John Clark, Nigel Williams, Paul Marr, Steve Bayliss and Steven Rodaway voted in favour.

Nation.Cymru asked Mr McIntosh on Thursday (May 11) why he and his colleagues had supported the motion, and whether their backing reflected a strategy or confusion. We did not receive a response.