Senior Reform figure paid nearly £40k to deliver other parties’ leaflets
Martin Shipton
A freedom of information disclosure has revealed that a company run by one of Wales’ leading Reform UK figures has been paid tens of thousands of pounds by Senedd Members to deliver leaflets at taxpayers’ expense.
Lee Canning recently took over as interim chair of Reform in Cardiff, having stood in the Cardiff East constituency in last year’s general election, coming third behind Labour’s Jo Stevens, now the Secretary of State for Wales, and Rodney Berman, the former Liberal Democrat leader of Cardiff council.
Until 2019, Mr Canning was the deputy chairman of the Welsh Conservatives. He resigned and joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party.
Mark Reckless
As well as working for a time for Mark Reckless, the former Ukip MP who became a member of the then National Assembly and later joined Abolish, Mr Canning was managing director of a leaflet delivery company called LDP Services, which he now describes as the biggest leaflet delivery firm in south Wales.
On his website he says delivery charges are from £50 for 1,000 leaflets. He also states: “My management style is robust, demanding the best out of people by leading by example. Our job at LDP Services is to bring your business into the public eye, delivering results for you. My management style might not be a cuddly one but as most business owners appreciate business is business and if a member of the team is not representing the team the way they should then sometimes they need to be replaced.”
A political source who wishes to remain anonymous asked the Senedd how much public money had been paid to Mr Canning’s firm for services provided to MSs.
Senedd members
After receiving the FoI disclosure, the source said: “Specifically, Mr Canning has warehoused £38,664 cash from Senedd Members in the last six years for his businesses.
“His paymasters are interesting. Senedd Conservatives overall have paid Mr Canning £10,739. Mr Canning was once a Conservative Party member before defecting to Abolish. His businesses may have also been paid money from the Conservative voluntary party, but that won’t be recorded on Senedd records.
“Conservative Senedd Member (with Abolish sympathies) Joel James has paid him £10,259 in just over two years.
“Bizarrely, Labour Senedd Members have paid Mr Canning £25,176 of taxpayers’ money, with Julie Morgan and Mark Drakeford coming in with over £15,000 and £4,000 respectively. Ex solicitor Mick Antoniw has sent Mr Canning’s businesses over £5,000. Dawn Bowden is also a contributor.
“Mark Reckless in 2021, at a time when both he and Mr Canning had defected to the Abolish party, paid him over £1,800 in one sitting. This does not include the additional taxpayers’ money he was also given by (then) Abolish party member Mark Reckless as one of his paid Senedd employees at the same time. Both Messrs Canning and Reckless are now members and/or involved in Reform UK’s operation in Wales.
“There is some irony in the fact that the business of a man who wanted to abolish the institution is making quite a bit of money from it.”
The total sums paid to LDP by individual politicians are:
Dawn Bowden (Labour, Merthyr Tydfil): £850.
Joel James (Conservative, South Wales Central): £10,259.
Julie Morgan (Labour, Cardiff North): £15,420.
Mark Drakeford (Labour, Cardiff West): £4,000.
Mark Reckless (Ukip/Independent Conservative/Brexit Party/Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party): £1,899.
Mick Antoniw (Labour, Pontypridd): £5,756.
Suzy Davies (Conservative, South Wales West): £480.
‘Discriminate’
Mr Canning said: “I’ve been running LDP for 14 years. I don’t choose my customers – they choose me. I don’t discriminate between clients in terms of their political affiliations. I am happy to facilitate the democratic process by working for a wide range of parties, including Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.
“In doing so I’m helping people to earn a living. Some of them are employees, and some, for their flexibility, are self-employed. We also charge less by quite a margin than the Royal Mail, so when we undertake work for MSs, we are saving the public purse quite a lot of money.”
Mr Canning said market conditions had forced him to “let a couple of workers go” this week, which he regretted.
He accepted that he had wanted to abolish the National Assembly, but that was no longer his position.
“People had the opportunity to vote for Abolish, but only did so in small numbers, “ he said. “We now have a Welsh Parliament, and while I still have reservations about devolution, I think the focus has to be on removing the party that runs it rather than getting rid of the institution itself.”
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It is not very surprising that individuals like this guy have no scruples about where the money comes from. That is all that is important to such people. They would blow their principles to the wind without hesitation.
Says more about the politicians who use his service.
You look for a firm to deliver leaflets. You see a company called LDP Services. If the price is competitive and you select the company to do the work I can’t see that anyone would know who owned the company.
I don’t see the problem here. Business is business, if political parties want to pay this company to deliver their leaflets, and the company does that as promised. I don’t know what the problem is?
Are you saying that the other political parties in Wales are so untrustworthy that only an unscrupulous company would dare deliver their leaflets?
I’m sure people would have plenty to say if this story were the other way round and this business had refused to deliver the leaflets of the owners political competitors?
Look at the analogy I wrote in the comments below. That’s explain the problem.
Delivering leaflets? At one time party members did that for free, but now its Canning, Royal Mail and Facebook.
Royal Mail have always delivered leaflets at election times – I think only one per candidate though. Volunteers to push leaflets through doors are becoming hard to come by. My wife used to deliver leaflets for one party; she enjoyed doing this and felt that being seen helped to raise the party’s profile in the area. However she had to stop due to increasing arthritis. Although I’m not a supporter of Reform, I can’t see why Mr Canning’s company shouldn’t deliver leaflets for any political party that wants to use it, along with other clients, providing it is charging a… Read more »
None are now politically neutral. Delivering leaflets is very time consuming slow work especially on estates, having also volunteered in the past to do this, so it is difficult to see how this could be done at a fair price while also paying workers minimum wage or is it piece rate work?
How are these companies selected by the political parties. Do they get on a Senedd system for example as an approved supplier?
We would get finance getting very shirty if we went off the books. So what method of selection here and how do I get on the list.
As for his claim of people getting a living, lets see the books. How much wages, what renumeration inc sick pay etc.
Aren’t leaflets funded from party coffers?
Shape shifting Snake.
If this man was paid to deliver leaflets and he did the job he was paid for what difference does his political view make? Someone has decided that it was a good idea to pay to have leaflets delivered. It’s a bit like saying that a postman who supports reform is delivering leaflets and getting paid for it.
Your analogy is off. It should be more someone who resents the institution of the post office, probably prefers email only and yet chooses to be a post man.
But doesn’t it really say more about the people who paid him especially if they knew his pedigree. (Although I am realising that ‘due diligence’ is not that important in the political world. )
I don’t think anyone of the names mentioned in this article have done themselves proud.
I agree with you.
Interesting he says he is working for the Green Party, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru – thus tarring them with the same brush as Conservatives, Labour and UKIP – yet there is no mention of Reform which he certainly DOES work for, and no evidence he has EVER worked for Plaid, Lib Dems or the Greens. He chooses his words very carefully!
Is he employing immigrants and illegals to do the deliveries?
How did he have time to work for Mark Reckless and run this company all during the same time?
I am 80, delivered and canvassed for Plaid Cymru all my life and still doing it with dozens of other Plaid supporters. Labour and Conservatives have no workers – there’s a clear message there!!!