Reform MS compares Senedd walkout speech to court jester ‘poking fun’ at king

Emily Price

A Reform UK MS has likened the Senedd to a royal court, labelling a speech that sparked a walkout by rival politicians as the work of a court jester poking fun at a king.

Caerdydd Penarth MS Joe Martin discussed the controversial Senedd contribution he delivered in the Chamber in June during an interview with evangelical podcaster Faith Jarvis on Friday (August 21).

Martin admitted he may have “overcooked” the speech which triggered members of Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Greens to walk out of Plenary proceedings in protest.

During the debate on international spending the Reform MS cracked jokes about Welsh children being unable to read and claimed nurses were signing on to universal credit because their jobs were being given to workers from India.

Martin told Jarvis that even those in favour of his remarks had warned him to make make “less jokes next time”, although he later added his supporters had told him “not to back down”.

He said: “I suppose my attitude going into it was that if the Welsh Government is foisting ridiculous ideas on people, then those ideas should be ridiculed – and you ridicule things with humour.

“And if things are really easy to make fun of, then I suppose it suggests that they’re not the right ideas.”

Jarvis laughed as she pointed out that Martin’s comments about Welsh children being unable to read was what triggered rival politicians to vacate the chamber in protest.

Martin praised his joke as “well crafted” adding that the issue of 20 per cent of school children in Wales entering secondary school illiterate was a fact you could either “laugh about or cry about”.

The Reform MS blasted “the gall of left wing politicians” who he said had contributed to a “dysfunctional” education system.

Martin said: “I don’t regret what I said. I don’t regret the way in which I said it. I think that actually the priority of the Welsh Government should be the education system.”

Branding rival politicians “thin skinned”, he likened the Senedd Chamber to a king’s court, saying it was the “function of the court jester” to “poke fun at the king” and that the king should accept it graciously.

He said: “If you can’t accept that graciously, then it shows you’re not fit to be king.

“I think that sort of dynamic was at play there – where they are so thin skinned that they can’t accept any sort of ridiculing for their ridiculous ideas – so yeah it’s immature, it’s sort of student union politics.”

Asked why Martin has chosen to stand in the Senedd election under Reform UK’s banner, he said he had realised it was “impossible” for young people in Wales to build a life similar to their parents because of the policy failures of the Welsh and UK Government.

The Reform MS claimed the “primary reason” life was so difficult for young people – particularly the working class – was due to the impact of mass migration, which he said was pushing down wages and increasing the cost of housing.

Martin said he thought the reason politicians on the left didn’t buy into this idea was because it was “unfashionable” to suggest at a dinner party that mass immigration is “terrible for this country”.

He added that people who do express this ideas, risk being questioned on whether they are supporters of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson.

Later during the interview, Martin praised the work of Reform’s “Head of Wales” Torfaen Councillor David Thomas who he described as “intimidating”and “scary”.

The Reform MS suggested that journalists who have reported on Thomas’ various controversies were doing so because he is “good at his job”.

Thomas faced critism last year when it was revealed that tracks published under his music production alias DJ Dowster, featured crude, degrading, and misogynistic language about women as well one track that used an offensive slur relating to people with disabilities.

Reform UK denied that Thomas created the songs.

Thomas also hit the headline when he claimed that he had been invited to officially open a Lidl store in Cwmbran and posted photos of himself holding large ceremonial red scissors.

However, the supermarket issued a blunt correction stating that no formal invitations were extended to Thomas.

Martin told Jarvis he believed Labour, the Tories and Plaid Cymru were “scared” of Reform UK because the party had a “really effective team”.

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