Reform MS slammed for ‘polluting’ 20mph evidence with ‘words that aren’t actually true’

Emily Price

A Reform UK shadow minister in the Senedd has been slammed for “polluting” 20mph collision evidence with “words that aren’t actually true”.

Deputy minister for transport Mark Hooper levelled the accusation against Reform UK’s transport spokesperson Jason O’Connell during Plenary on Wednesday (September 23).

Over the last week, O’Connell’s party has repeatedly claimed that Wales’ 20mph default speed limit has led to more deaths on Welsh roads.

But road safety campaigners say that Reform’s group in the Senedd are twisting the truth about newly released data.

Official Welsh Government statistics show that 91 people were killed in road collisions in Wales last year, seven more than in 2024.

However, the increase in fatalities did not occur on 20mph roads, it was recorded on 60mph and 70mph roads.

The figures also showed that both fatalities and collisions on 20mph and 30mph roads have been lower since the default 20mph speed limit was introduced in September 2023.

Mr O’Connell omitted this detail when raising the 20mph speed limit in the Senedd today when he claimed the new data had shown the policy is “clearly not working”.

Mr Hooper pointed out that at the Senedd’s business statement last week, Mr O’Connell had been reminded to use data carefully, and yet was using the same data again as he had then.

The deputy minister said: “This data doesn’t relate to 20mph.

“Let’s give you the actual data: in 2025, there were 1,469 collisions on roads with 20mph and 30mph speed limits combined, which is 2 per cent higher than in 2024, when there were 1,445.

“But it is the second lowest annual number ever recorded in Wales.

“So, this proves that, when we’ve reduced speed limits, it’s actually reduced collisions.

“I’ve heard it from people over the other side of the Siambr, and I appreciate it.

“This saves children’s lives. This is a policy that this Government supports.

“We recognise there were ways we could have done it better; we talked about that throughout the last term, and I think we’d say the same thing again.

“However, we’ve got to make sure we follow the evidence, and when the evidence gets polluted by words that aren’t actually true, it distorts things.

“The one thing that I’m sure that I’m going to make sure I do is that I am evidence-led.

“I’m not going to be just led by rhetoric, which is from the benches behind.”

Mr O’Connell responded saying he was “pretty sure” the data told him that accidents were going up.

He went on to accuse the Welsh Government of “punishing motorists as a transport strategy”.

Mr Hooper pointed out that above in the Chamber’s public viewing gallery there were school children were watching Plenary proceedings.

He said: “It’s with them in mind that I support this policy, because, ultimately, this is not about dogma, this is about safety and particularly children’s safety.

“So, this is something that this Government supports; I think it sounds like it’s got support from across other parts of the Siambr.

“Because when it comes to dogma, there’s no party more interested in dogma than the party behind me, when they’re talking about things like this.

“Ultimately, I care more about those children who are up there than I do about answering questions that are like this.”

As Mr Hooper spoke about protecting children on Welsh roads, Senedd TV cameras showed Reform UK’s chief whip, Llŷr Powell, Sir Gaerfyrddin MS Gareth Beer and Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr MS David Hughes laughing.

It comes after Mr O’ Connell was criticised for making “misleading” claims about the 20mph default speed limit in a GB News opinion column published last week with the headline, “Labour’s 20mph experiment has made Welsh roads more dangerous, not safer”.

Founder of the 20’s Plenty campaign Rod King said Reform UK politicians were being “disingenuous” and obscuring where the increase in road deaths actually occurred.

He pointed out that there were two more deaths on 70mph roads in 2025 than in 2024 and eight more on 60mph roads – a combined increase of 10 fatalities.

For the other speed limits fatalities were either unchanged or lower.

He said: “Tragically in Wales in 2025 on 70mph roads 2 more people died than in 2024 and on 60mph roads it was 8 more people.

“That’s an additional 10 people and families devastated. At all other speed limits the fatalities in 2025 were the same or reduced.

“So what is the response of the right-wing politicians and press.

“Do they seek to find out where they died and what could be the difference between 2024 and 2025.

“Do they try to understand whether this is within expected year to year variations? Do they even reference the trauma involved?

“Well actually it was none of these. They chose to link the additional deaths on 60mph and 70mph roads to the award-winning default urban/village 20mph initiative implemented in 2023.”

The Welsh Government itself combines 20mph and 30mph roads when assessing the impact of the policy because most roads that were previously 30mph were changed to 20mph when the default limit came into force three years ago.

On those roads, King pointed out that the picture is markedly different from the “misleading” headlines run by right-wing news outlets last week.

He said: “Road deaths on Welsh urban/village roads (20mph and 30mph) in 2025 were lower than in 2022, 2023 and equal to 2024.

“Killed or serious injuries were lower in 2025 than 2021, 2022, 2023, but higher than 2024.

“The reporting is completely imbalanced and fails to inform the public what actually happened.

“It creates a divisive and toxic narrative around the 20mph initiative which has no connection to the additional 10 deaths.

“Any compassion and curiosity as to how families were impacted or how such increases could be avoided was lost in a gross attempt to bash political parties that actually delivered a 26% reduction in casualties on urban/village roads in Wales when comparing the casualties in the 24 months after with the 12 months before.

“Whilst there are responsible politicians and media outlets who will not hide from the toxic narrative from those opposing 20mph limits which are making our built-up places better places to be.

“This is an attempt to gain readers, clicks and votes at the expense of people dying and being injured on our roads.”

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