Row as deputy council leader compares Reform UK with Nazis
Martin Shipton
A council’s deputy leader is unrepentant after comparing Reform UK’s description of itself as a “People’s Army” with Nazi terminology used in the 1930s and during World War Two.
When Jane Gebbie, the deputy leader of Bridgend County Borough Council, came home late from a meeting, she was incensed to find a Reform leaflet had been delivered inviting her to: “Join The People’s Army Today!”
She immediately annotated the leaflet, writing: “Right wing rhetoric. Divisive politics. Misinformation.
“Hitler had a People’s Army AKA The Wehrmacht / Volkssturm / Sturmabteilung”. Hope we remind people of the damage they did.”
Cllr Gebbie then posted her comments on social media, where they were met with howls of outrage from Reform politicians and their supporters.
Bridgend Reform councillor Owain Clatworthy posted a message on his Facebook page that said: “It’s been brought to my attention that the Labour deputy leader of Bridgend County Borough Council Cllr Jane Gebbie has compared Reform UK and its supporters to Nazi organisations.
“Let me be absolutely clear. Political disagreement is healthy. It is part of democracy. But comparing your own residents to the Wehrmacht and the SA crosses a line.
“Thousands of people across Bridgend voted for Reform UK at the last general election and many did so again in Pyle, Kenfig Hill and Cefn Cribwr when they elected me as Bridgend’s first Reform county councillor.
“These are ordinary hard working people who want change. They are parents, workers, carers and pensioners and veterans. They are people who deserve respect, not reckless accusations pulled out of the darkest chapters of history.
“When you hold public office, your job is to bring communities together, not tear them apart with outrageous labels. Calling your own residents ‘’like Nazis’ is not just wrong. It is irresponsible. And it shows exactly why so many people are turning away from Labour in the first place.
“I will always stand up for the people I represent. Whether they voted for me or not, they deserve leadership that treats them with dignity. We can debate passionately without demonising each other.
“That is the standard I am holding myself to, and it is the standard Bridgend should expect from everyone in public office.”
Formal complaint
Cllr Clatworthy said later that he would be making a formal complaint about Cllr Gebbie’s comments to both the council and the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.
Cllr Gebbie told Nation.Cymru: “I am a worker and a trade unionist, and have worked all my adult life in local government and the health service. I know about history and I know the force that words can have.
“I was born in Singapore, was an air force child and have lived in Germany. I am not naive.
“We saw the way Reform conducted itself during the recent Caerphilly by-election. Their disgraceful campaign showed them stirring up racial division and hatred in a peaceful community, just like the Nazis in the 1930s in Germany.
“People should also take note of the recent revelations from people who went to school with Nigel Farage. The Guardian found 20 ex-pupils who spoke about his racism and his support for Hitler.
“People who can’t see the parallels need to read up about how the Nazis came to power and what they did when they gained it.
“Reform is not run in a democratic way but is a personality cult built around one man. It’s not even a normal political party, but a limited company run in an authoritarian way.
“I’m making no apology for what I’ve said, and I’ve been pleased and surprised by the cross-party messages of support from Conservatives and members of Plaid Cymru.”
A Jewish fellow pupil at Farage’s school in London told this week how the teenage Farage persistently told him that “Hitler was right” and taunted him about the murder of Jews in gas chambers.
Farage has denied saying anything that was intended to be personally hurtful.
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Good, principled lady, not willing to back down to hate filled gas bags whose leader agrees that what happened to the Jews in Germany was the right thing. “Peter Ettedgui, now an award-winning director and producer, told the paper: “He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right,’ or ‘Gas them,’ sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers.”” Copied from the Independent. Why has garage not condemned such hateful conduct and language?
He has not apologised. He knows what hate he is sowing. The extermination camps didn’t happen overnight, there was a path that was taken. Nige is on that path.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/28/nigel-farage-antisemitism-allegations-us-maga
Dont often agree with anyone in Labour, but shes dead on here. We need to rid Cymru anx Britain of these fascists. Hate filled bigots everyons of them
Not wrong though.
Clatworthy doesn’t see the parallels then he needs to read a few history books.
Hows reforms black shirts for £350 going, does Clatworthy understand the connotation’s? Does he need a pointer?
She’s right, it needs to be e said, Trump in the US and Farage in the UK as well as others World wide
Perhaps if the far-right, Reform UK don’t want to be compared with the Nazis perhaps their leader Farage should not have campaigned in Germany for the Hitler apologists AFD and in Austria for the Freedom Pty set up by former member of the Waffen SS.
Come on Rev, spill the beans…
Reform is a right wing party which has risen to prominence by demonising immigrants and asylum seekers as one of the causes of the UK’s ills. When the tables are turned they really can’t hack it. Cllr Clatworthy needs to take a long hard look at what he’s trying to defend here. His Reform party are continually prattling on about free speech but when it comes down to criticism or opinions about Reform they go Woke, just like Llyr Powell did in Caerfili. On a brighter note, Operation Lower the Flag is going well in Carmarthenshire.Looking less like Nuremberg every… Read more »
Have the Rothemere Family given up on politics…
Or are we in line for Nigel and 4th Reich…?
Unfortunately the Daily Mail are now owners of the Telegraph. Given the Murdoch ownership of the Sun and Sky, and the extremist right on GB news, the agenda is being set by Faragist sympathisers.
This is why we are fortunate in Wales to have Nation Cymru, who are prepared to ask the awkward questions and hold our politicians to account.
Good to see a Labour politician prepared to speak out.
Well said.
Sorry man, it was a joke, how long have you been on nation….
Ah, so we’ve moved on to ‘extremist right’ now. You lot really ought to keep some powder dry, or you’re going to struggle for adjectives should you ever encounter any actual far right people, or real Nazis.
Seen this? Bye bye women’s rights in the UK.
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/11/24/nigel-farages-project-2029-the-pro-trump-lobbyist-pushing-his-agenda-into-the-uk/
Was Kevin Hollinrake wrong? Even the Cons are saying it. About time you thought about the side of history you’re backing.
Soon we will see groups of Reformites ,the people’s army parading around in their newly acquired black shirts,
Signed by his nibs
Chanting all migrants out
steady on old boy…
Well just imagine the branch meetings .A sea of black shirts calling for an end to the Nation of Sanctuary ”
Black looks by the branch chair if not appearing not wearing one
Everybody is wearing black shirts, I think it is this year’s colour, but it is hardly surprising. Now Peaky has the flat cap so that’s out. Jack will sell you a pair of boots, but lets not go there…these are not Nazis, they are too fat and lazy for a start…
Everybody ? Not with Reform UK emblazoned and a little badge just to add a little political context
The black shirt has been one of the most recognizable political uniforms i associated with fascism.
Its going to be the first thought which runs thru peoples minds when they see a group of them chanting Migrants out
The smell has followed Farage thru his career
Just ask Alan Sked the founder of UKIP
The one with the arrow pointing at 18.
And what night of the week will that be…
Isn’t it very simple? Pointing out that something that looks like a duck, walks like a duck , quacks like a duck is more than likely a F****** Duck!!
Seeing Reform UK have a history of attracting those with far-right ideology, bearing in mind its cult leader Nigel Farage has been accused by fellow pupils and teachers of being a fascist and having racially abused black, Asian and Jewish students whilst at Dulwich collage in the 1970s & 1980s. If the cap fits. Wear it!
Is Farage a vindictive man like Twmp I wonder…
YES HE F*****G IS!!!!!
Heard of the SPG, a sherpa van full of violent racist coppers, they used to drive around London all night beating up black guys. That was the Seventies…they call them something else these days…
What is the collective noun for a group of Reform supporters ?
An Oswald ?
No, absolutely not, HMS Oswald, a submarine, lies off Sicily, a war grave, also my best mate in primary school was an Oswald…him dead a long time…
It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Look up Ernst Röhm, Sturmabteilung (storm troop, assault detachment, Brownshirts), enforcing the will of the Nazi party by intimidatory violence. Referred to as the ‘peoples’ militia’, it was a paramilitary wing of the Nazis. Farij did refer to his ‘members’ (supporters) at conference as the ‘peoples’ army’ and beyond that, he has now buckled under scrutiny and admitted racially abusing pupils at his college by saying ‘not in a hurtful way’. Gotcha! The councillor is spot on and even if she, I or anyone else is barking up the wrong tree here, Farij has the hanging stink of a perception… Read more »
What happened to him in the end? Oh yeah….
Yes indeed. A fine example of how hate will eat itself. Assemble enough hate heads in one ‘room’ and they will turn in on each other. So be it, despite it being a distressing spectacle to be forced to view, as long as the rest of us can watch on unthreatened from afar, all well and good. If we can’t, then, as Spaceboy said, it’s ‘fight back or die’.
As the famous saying.goes “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck”…..increasing numbers of people can see what Reform are – lets just say Councillor Gebbie isnt far wrong in what she says.
No need for her to apologise
There are such obvious similarities.
Demonizing a religo-ethnic group for starters.
Councillor Clatworthy said a lot here but did not address what his leader meant by ‘Peoples’ army’. He should have looked into that before responding. He also spoke about bringing communities together and Councillor Gebbie reminded us how Clatworthys’ ‘party’/company tried in Caerphilly to bring some part of the community together to vilify another part driving division and hatred. They paid the political price of failure and were rightly rejected.
Call me a pedant, but the Wehrmacht might amount to overreach. That said, the Volkssturm sounds about right – a bunch of pensioners, scared into service by the prospect of the ‘barbarians at the gate’. Panzerfaust, anyone?
‘… she was incensed to find a Reform leaflet had been delivered inviting her to: “Join The People’s Army Today!”’ I’ve received what I imagine must have been the same mailshot. I presume that Reform, boosted doubtless by the money being shovelled its way by billionnaire ‘libertarians’ both here and across the Pond, is mailing every household in Wales as their first attempt to garner support in advance of the Senedd elections next May. I think that she has assessed it absolutely spot on. And my own response to this utterly abhorrent political faction is going to be … well,… Read more »
She could be correct!
Yes, the party whose leader bullies and taunts Jewish people with rhetoric about gas chamber isn’t fascistic at all. We lefties need to get a sense of humour. You know what’s funny? Hitler killed himself.