Reform UK Senedd group take aim at Plaid Cymru voters
Emily Price
Reform UK’s group in the Senedd has launched a direct attack on Plaid Cymru voters, accusing them of supporting the party simply because they believe it represents Welsh patriotism.
In a video message aimed specifically at Plaid supporters, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr MS Jason O’Connell claimed that some voters only back the party because they believe it is “automatically the party of Wales”.
Standing in a field on a mountain wearing a suit and tie, the Reform UK politician said that Plaid Cymru’s name does not give the party “ownership” of Wales’ identity.
He said: “Wales belongs to all of us. Our flag doesn’t belong to Plaid Cymru, our history doesn’t belong to Plaid Cymru, our culture doesn’t belong to Plaid Cymru.
“And the dragon certainly doesn’t belong to Plaid Cymru.”
O’ Connell accused Plaid’s supporters of looking at the party’s branding rather than what it “actually stands for” and challenged the idea that voting for Plaid is a natural expression of being proud to be Welsh.
O’Connell said: “I’m fiercely Welsh, fiercely proud to be Welsh.
“But loving Wales doesn’t mean that you have to support Plaid Cymru.”
He added: “Nobody gets to tell you that supporting one political party makes you more Welsh than somebody else.
“Being Welsh is bigger than politics. It’s bigger than Plaid Cymru.
“The dragon belongs to all of us. Wales belongs to all of us.
“Plaid Cymru does define Wales, the Welsh people do.”
Showing footage of asylum seekers travelling in a small boat and an image of the transgender pride flag, O’ Connell urged Plaid Cymru voters to look beyond the party’s name and consider its policies and what they would mean for Wales.
He said patriotism should be measured by a desire to improve everyday life, pointing to opportunities for children, an improved NHS, schools, and thriving Welsh businesses.
“Being patriotic is about wanting the very best for Wales,” he said.
The clip ended with the Reform Senedd’s group’s trademark teal blue Welsh dragon logo.
One comment left visible on the post saw a Reform supporter suggest using violence against Plaid Cymru voters.
“Can’t we just start clubbing people who voted Plaid in?” the commentator suggested.
The video’s background music featured a piano version of Dafydd Iwan’s famous Welsh-language folk anthem Yma o Hyd – a song about the survival of the Welsh people, language, and culture against centuries of hardship.
It is unclear whether Reform’s group in the Senedd obtained permission from Iwan to use his anthem in their campaign video.
Iwan served as the Chair of Plaid Cymru from 1982 to 1984 and strongly supported the party during the May Senedd election where he actively campaigned and appeared at rallies supporting the Plaid and the Welsh language.
In August 2025, the singer expressed anger when “Yma o Hyd” was used by the Reform supported far-right group, Voice of Wales.
The group, led by a man convicted of scamming vulnerable people, had used Iwan’s iconic anthem as the soundtrack for a Facebook video showcasing high-profile protests against housing asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli.
Iwan strongly condemned Voice of Wales for co-opting his song.
In a post to social media, he urged people protesting against the housing of asylum seekers to stop using “Yma o Hyd”.
In a bilingual post to X, formally Twitter, Iwan said: “Mae wedi dod i’m sylw fod ‘Yma o Hyd’ yn cael ei defnyddio gan bobol sy’n gwrthwynebu rhoi cartref i geiswyr lloches.
“Os gwelwch yn dda, peidiwch!!
“It has been brought to my notice that ‘Yma o Hyd’ is used by groups opposing the housing of asylum seekers. This must stop!!”
Plaid Cymru and Dafydd Iwan was invited to comment.
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I’d rather have our culture belong to a party that cares about Wales than in the hands of a party seeking to destroy Wales.
Wow, attacking members of the voting public for exercising their democratic rights the “wrong” way. This couldn’t possibly backfire horribly…. could it? If this is how they act in opposition, let’s make sure we never see them at work in government.
To be clear lest anyone misunderstand, he didn’t attack Welsh people or Plaid Cymru supporters, some random commenter (probably from England) did. He did however say that Plaid Cymru should stop virtue signalling… and then proceeded to virtue signal in the opposite direction.
He should have removed the nasty horrible comment inciting to violence.
This is a criminal act and the failure to remove the comment is equally negligent and should be reported to the police and this MS should apologise for his failure to do so and resign immediately.
Inciting violence is just a serious as the act of violence itself.
Interesting as reform and Farage have been very vocal of their disdain for the Welsh language and the senedd.
Collective noun for Reform Voters/Candidates. A Vomit.
Reform Scum. Get out of Cymru. Get back to Clacton where you belong.
Candidates and activists, by all means attack. NEVER attack voters! That’s what this idiot and his enabler did. Don’t lower yourself to their standard, we’re better than that.
Beautifully put, but let’s save that kind of talk for the more victimy of society.
Inconceivable Dafydd Iwan would’ve given his permission to this brit nat rabble to use ‘Yma o Hyd’ in their plaid bashing propaganda
It’s a simple choice, what ever you vote for, if you vote for reform you are voting to support racists and foreign money carving up the UK and farages corruption and removal of all your rights.
The path to the hell in Germany didn’t start with the gas chambers, it started with people like reform and restore.
Yes, but… how do you convince racists and people taking foreign money and… less educated folk who are probably on benefits that the nice charming man who visited a pub once… is trying to screw them over? Nathan Gill – Was bribed – Reform voters didn’t care Farage – Took a mystery 5m donation for ‘security’, no declarations – Reform votes don’t care Reform – Took 4m from a former fraud convict (refusal to enforce anti-laundering) – Reform voters don’t care Farage & Co – Seen in video trying to actually dodge laws on political donations in the UK by… Read more »
Some will never change, saw one interview with a chap dressed as King summit or another and was full on reform no matter what. Germany had the same enablers. Do not think that we are different. But it doesn’t mean we cannot call them on history.
This is going to end well for the Brit Nat idiots😂
Come try and club me, c**t.
I vote Plaid because I believe in their progressive, fair policies that will make Cymru a better place than it is now.
I vote Plaid because I believe they have Cymru’s best interests at their core.
I don’t vote them because they are called Plaid Cymru.
And I don’t vote Reform, because I’m not a tw@
Like Chas ‘n’ Dave almost said ‘I don’t care, i don’t care, i don’t care if he comes round ‘ere. Got my polling card on the sideboard there, i’m still voting Plaid if he comes round ‘ere’.
He doesn’t have much pride in the character of the average ‘Dyn Cyffredin’ if he thinks he is an exemplar…I wonder which yank tank thought this up…?
This might be more convincing if they hadn’t absorbed the Abolish Wales party.
What a load of verbal diarrhoea from MS Jason O’Connell. Plaid Cymru has been the guardian of Wales, the Welsh language and our culture since its founding in 1925; it always has been and always will be. May I also remind him that his cult leader, Nigel Farage, has recently ridiculed the Welsh language and called us “foreign speakers”? On that basis, I think he should link arms with Dan Thomas and take a long jump off a short pier – if there are any in Birmingham, that is. Reform UK is an English imperialist party that wants to abolish… Read more »
I wonder when banging the Reform drum Will if he will be repeating these words he made in an interview in 2023 with the local press in Cwmbran. He now represents Merthyr when campigning in the forthcoming local elections. “Local elections are about one thing: local people. “Party politics has no part to play & I can assure you that Rishi Sunak, Sir Kier Starmer or Mark Drakeford do not care at all if our fields & ancient trees get developed on, if your children receive education from schools in constant special measures or if your waste collections are missed &… Read more »
In the grand scheme of things, my view is not that important. He says he’s proud of our flag y Ddraig Goch, but comes from a party that waves the Union Jack with passion. A flag that our nation (by the way thank goodness) is not represented on.
Who the hell set him off? It sounds like a drunken argument outside the boozer at closing time. I won’t bother with unnecessary pick ups of this & that. His membership of a vile hate organisation says it all. Pride in being Welsh is quiet and steadfast which is why we are still here (Yma o hyd) 600+ years beyond the annexation. He has used the words ‘fiercely’ and ‘patriotism’ (a heavily misused word in recent years). He needs to harness his fierce pride and use it to demand the end of harrassment of innocent people in Caerffili, attacks on… Read more »
Been sent out by Farage HQ to detract from farages bungfest.
They can try but our gaze is firmly fixed on the Hitler lover and his 5 million pound gift, bribe, security fund, car fund, home fund…… .
Strangely enough, i sent a text to LBC earlier which read ‘Hitler state of emergency 1933. Farage national emergency 2026. Anyone waking up yet?’. The broad answer from the media is no so beyond that, i would like to know what MI5 are doing about this internal terror threat.
Mason on the BBC is basically writing for Reform as far as I can see.
Meanwhile the party of free speech banned 4 or 5 reporters.
Yes. Whilst the boss is making a total k••b of himself at hatefest, his decoy minion is out making a k••b of himself. Spread the filth thinly then it won’t be noticed so easily. Oh yeah?
Some odd claims from a party that wants rid of the closest thing Cymru has had to democracy in centuries, you can’t claim to fiercely love Cymru and remove its government. If he needs telling, that one country being controlled by another isn’t democracy, then he shouldn’t be near politics. How exactly is removing the funding for Cymraeg “loving” a country? If that’s his idea of love, I’d be concerned for his partners wellbeing. I’ve heard the tuts and snide remarks from the Reform gang extremely clearly when practicing Cymraeg with our local group, they despise Cymraeg, Cymru and those… Read more »
For once, I agree with Reform.
Plaid Cymru doesn’t own Cymru, our flag, our language, o’r anything else Welsh, for that matter.
But Plaid *are* a party who want to protect and nurture those things. At the moment, most other parties have, at best, split loyalties, and will generally only do things that benefit Cymru if it plays well on a British (or more correctly, English) stage.
That pretty much makes the voting decision an easy one for me.