Senior Reform figure accused of ‘authoritarianism’ amid internal row over Welsh branch chairs
Emily Price
A senior Reform figure has been accused of fuelling an “authoritarian culture” within the party amid an internal row over a lack of elections for Welsh branch chairs.
Reform’s Campaign Director for Wales, Cllr David Thomas, was appointed the role by the party’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, earlier this year.
It followed the departure of interim director of the party in Wales – Kirsty Walmsley who was made redundant.
Walmsley had been tasked with installing chairpersons in new branches across Wales but was later accused of engaging in “cronyism” when she appointed her own father for one of the roles.
A Reform insider told us that after Walmsely was ejected by the party, David Thomas – who is also a councillor in Torfaen – began dismissing branch chairs and replacing them with “interim branch chairs”.
‘Spurious’
Our source said: “Kirsty had found people for these roles but almost immediately David started dismissing them, sacking them, removing them.
“David will just come up with a spurious story and say ‘you’re out’. Some people resigned – but they were forced resignations.”
It is understood that 9 out of Reform’s 16 branch chairs in Wales have now been removed – the most high profile casualty being former Senedd Member Caroline Jones who was dismissed as chair of Reform’s Bridgend and Glamorgan branch.
A Reform source said: “Branch members all over Wales are up in arms. David Thomas is not just firm and robust – he is a bully and a well known misogynist.
“A lot of the branch chairs who were dismissed were women. Kirsty is a woman. There is a pattern here emerging with Reform in Wales.”
We were pointed to an X post by Cllr Thomas published back in 2022 when he branded “Labour left councillors” on Torfaen Council “ugly”.
Ian Williams – the Reform UK candidate who stood in Torfaen at the last general election – raised concerns about Cllr Thomas’ behaviour in a Facebook post announcing his exit from the party.
Williams warned Reform supporters that there was a “myriad of troubling aspects regarding Dave Thomas’ behaviour still hidden from your view”.
A Reform source told us: “I don’t think David Thomas’ behaviour has been given the coverage it should – this is a party that could be in power in the Senedd.
“The public need to understand the sort of personalities in Reform that are now calling the shots in Wales.”
Vote
It is understood that branch members had been promised a democratic vote to elect chairpersons – but after several months in the role, Cllr Thomas has yet to arrange this.
The former independent councillor along with two other Torfaen councillors gave Reform UK its first official presence in Wales when they defected to the party last year.
Cllr Thomas has since hit the headlines several times – including for allegations he had posed for pictures of himself cutting a ribbon at the opening of a new Lidl store despite not be invited to do so.
He came under fire again when news broke that Cllr Thomas – also known as DJ Dowster – was credited as one of the ‘composers’ of a happy hardcore tune that uses a derogatory term for a person with cerebral palsy.
Democratisation
A Reform UK insider said: “He isn’t capable of being a councillor nor is he suitable to lead Reform’s campaign in Wales.
“He’s had long enough to hold elections for branch chairs – why haven’t they been held?
“It’s not hard, you hold an AGM, you hold an election, people who are members prove they are members and we have a show of hands.
“I think Reform probably doesn’t want democratisation – it’s much easier to stick with this authoritarian culture.
“How things are working with Reform on the ground in Wales is not democratic.
“The lack of elections plays to the broader chaos and the power plays and power struggles within the party.”
They added: “There are questions here that David Thomas and the party really need to answer.
“If Reform won’t appoint branch chairs democratically it raises questions about how democratic the Senedd selection process is.”
We asked David Thomas why he hadn’t yet organised elections for Reform’s branch chairs in Wales.
We also asked him why he had dismissed so many former branch chairs.
He did not respond to our questions.
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I’m not sure which one of these Welsh haters should be more embarrassed than the other to be caught in a photo with the other but we also hear about another list of dispatched wasters who cannot be anywhere near the roles they have attempted to occupy and yet again their claim of owning so called ‘free speech’ does not extend to providing answers when challenged. That’s when they become supporters of a silence they wish to impose on us. Dream on, the finished. You will never take my country nor nationality from me.
This personifies Reform UK. Cult of personality. They are a party of Poundland Putins. Haven’t we suffered enough? Wales deserves better than this.
Reform are Extremist English Nationalist Unionists. They want to abolish Welsh democracy.
Five or more news items about that odious lot headlined on one page this morning. Too much publicity for them.
How anyone with a brain could vote for these idiots is beyond me.
We seem to have morphed into a society which these days prioritizes entertainment value as the most significant factor in shaping people’s politics. Having now just hit the age of 80, I can well remember Britain’s politics as it was back in the 1960s, and in those days most folk seemed to expect their politicians to be of the ‘slow and steady’ type. ‘Entertaining’ politicians would be viewed with suspicion, as potential con artists, which was presumably the reason why there weren’t many of them. It’s quite a shift!
Thatcherism cultified politics.
I agree – I think that the Thatcher era marked the very beginning of the slide towards the point at which we appear now to have arrived.
Because politics in that era was built on a lie. The problems in the 70s were blamed on Labour and the 80s bounce back credited to Thatcher. But all that really happened was the oil price quadrupled in the 70s, which no party could’ve survived, and recovered in the 80s meaning everything became cheaper and more profitable. No different from an ancient shaman claiming they control the sun when an eclipse suddenly happens during a ceremony, and becoming an all-powerful figure for a generation.
I think that’s a broadly fair and accurate assessment.
Shock news.
People who have chosen to live in a toilet complain about the smell.
Keep fascist filth out of Wales.
you want to see how he treated his workers lol, if you know, then you would expect no different from this twig