Reform’s Senedd Chief of Staff steps down after just two months in post

Emily Price

Reform UK’s first Chief of Staff in the Senedd has stepped down after just two months in the role.

Cllr David Thomas, who represents Llantarnam Ward on Torfaen County Borough Council, was up until recently working as Chief of Staff for the party’s Senedd group under Welsh leader Dan Thomas.

However, Senedd records now show that he has taken on an adviser role supporting Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr MS Jason O’Connell –  a former fellow Torfaen councillor who was elected to the Senedd in May.

Questions were raised over the change after Reform UK advertised for a permanent Chief of Staff in July, with the job advert stating that applicants should be graduates.

A Reform UK insider told Nation.Cymru at the time that Cllr Thomas had been “underperforming” in the post.

We asked Cllr Thomas if he had stepped down voluntarily or if Welsh leader Dan Thomas had dismissed him.

Issuing a statement as a Reform spokesperson praising his own work, which he then signed off himself, Mr Thomas said he had held the Chief of Staff role on an “interim basis” while helping to “build the party’s team” and support its newly elected MSs.

He said: “During the summer recess, the group appointed a permanent Chief of Staff, and David has now returned to his role as Head of Wales for the party.

“Group Leader Dan Thomas thanked David personally for his support and contribution, and wished him every success in his continuing role with Reform UK.”

‘Mystery’

Cllr Thomas did not directly address questions about whether his educational background played any role in the change.

Nation.Cymru asked him who had been appointed as the group’s new Chief of Staff, but he did not respond.

A Reform UK source said: “‘Calamity Dave’ as Reform people in Wales called him, caused mayhem from the off.

“No one knew why he was rated by HQ and his whole appointment was a mystery.

“He had made zero impact on the development of the party, even in Brexit Party days, and then got appointed and started running the show having been an also-ran on Torfaen Borough flipping between all the party groups.

“The first thing he did was sack the Welsh branch chairs who did actually build the party up, including most of the women branch chairs, and behind the scenes he behaved appallingly.

“Maybe in the Senedd Group the elected Members see he is a total liability with nothing to offer?

“We all knew this years ago, just spend three minutes googling Dr Squeegees and the answer’s stare you in the face.”

Cllr Thomas faced criticism in May following the Welsh election after mocking a Conservative MS who lost their seat by offering them a job as a window cleaner through his ‘Dr Squeegees’ business.

In recent days, the Torfaen councillor has been ridiculed after sharing before-and-after images of a bus stop he said he had cleaned.

One commentator questioned the result, pointing out that while the bus stop appeared wetter in the second image, grime remained visible.

Cllr Thomas, who has described himself as “the bald Clarke [sic] Kent”, hit back at the commenter by suggesting they needed to visit Specsavers.

‘Misogynstic’

The former independent councillor gave Reform UK its first official presence in Wales when he defected to the party in 2024, having also previously been associated with the Labour Party, the Brexit Party and the Conservative Party.

In February last year, calls were made for him to resign as a councillor in Torfaen after the BBC unearthed “offensive and misogynistic” dance tracks posted online under his music alias “DJ Dowster”.

Some of the tracks used crude and offensive language about women and included a highly derogatory slur for people with cerebral palsy.

Thomas denied the music was his, but told the BBC to continue to publish the story because “it keeps us in the limelight”.

Cllr Thomas was appointed Reform’s campaign director for Wales in 2025 by the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf.

He was later accused of contributing to an “authoritarian culture” when he replaced branch chairs with “interim branch chairs” without holding elections.

Earlier this year, Cllr Thomas was removed from Cwmbran Community Council for failing to attend meetings.

The window cleaner was also involved in a dispute with a supermarket chain last year after posting images of himself cutting a ribbon at the opening of a new store in Cwmbran.

Lidl complained that no official ribbon-cutting ceremony had taken place and that no formal invitations had been issued for the event.

Mr Thomas later deleted the post, which showed him holding a large pair of scissors outside the store.

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