Senior Reform politician criticised after offering defeated Tory MS ‘window cleaner job’

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

The ex-partner of a Conservative politician who lost his Senedd seat has hit out at “undignified” post from a senior Reform figure aimed at him.

Tom Giffard posted the heartfelt video to social media thanking supporters and pondering his future as he admitted he had “no plan B” after losing the election and position he “absolutely loved”.

But after Reform UK’s director for Wales, and Torfaen councillor, David Thomas re-shared the video and appeared to mock the ousted politician by offering him a job as a window cleaner Mr Giffard’s ex Abigail Mainon sprang to his defence despite writing: “It’s no secret Tom isn’t my favourite person right now”.

Other social media users on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticised the post by the Reform official who is also its group leader on Torfaen Borough Council. The Llantarnam councillor also runs a window cleaning firm, Dr Squeegee’s Window Cleaning Services based in Cwmbran.

Mr Giffard had represented South Wales West from 2021 but failed to return to the Senedd as the Tories missed out on winning any of the six seats in the new Gwyr Abertawe constituency covering Swansea.

Responses

His video was posted to X following the results on Friday evening, May 8 but 24 hours later was shared by Cllr Thomas who added the comment: “Hi Tom – I’ve got a window cleaner job that’s just come up if you’re interested buddy ?”

Among those to criticise the Torfaen councillor was Mr Giffard’s estranged partner, Ms Mainon who pointed out they have a young child, a mortgage and he’d “lost a job he truly cared about”.

Ms Mainon, who is the deputy chairman of the Welsh Conservatives, shared Cllr Thomas post with her own comment and wrote : “It’s no secret Tom isn’t my favourite person right now following a difficult separation But he worked his butt off, we have a young son, a mortgage to pay and he just lost a job he truly cared about. This is horrificly (sic) undignified from @reformparty_uk”.

Diolch am bopeth.

Thank you for everything. pic.twitter.com/Dip31gQDpH

— Tom Giffard (@TomGiffard) May 8, 2026

Conservative Senedd Member Janet Saunders described her former colleague as a “brilliant orator and a hard working member” and wrote: “This type of insensitive comment does not reflect well on his party.”

Paul Wells, a Tory councillor in Great Yarmouth, posted: “There is nothing more distasteful than a bad winner who takes the chance to engage in petty cruelty. This reflects very poorly on this gentleman before you consider the sneering tone towards a perfectly normal form of employment.”

One X user replied to Cllr Thomas and stated: “Honking attitude, it’s an earnest post from Tom why spoil it by kicking him whilst he’s down?”

It’s no secret Tom isn’t my favourite person right now following a difficult separation

But he worked his butt off, we have a young son, a mortgage to pay and he just lost a job he truly cared about.

This is horrificly undignified from @reformparty_uk https://t.co/VCJ2rMeS28

— Abigail Mainon (@AbigailMainon) May 10, 2026

In the one minute video Mr Giffard thanked supporters and said : “I don’t know what comes next, I don’t know, like I say there’s no plan B but I’m going to take a bit of time, be quiet for a bit probably and work everything out but genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, diolch am y gyfle. Thank you for the opportunity bye.”

In February this year Cllr Thomas told a council committee he was concerned at the impact of trolling and social media abuse on the family members of councillors and claimed “nobody gets abuse, or his character assassinated, as much as me on social media.”

Cllr Thomas complained about comments made by other councillors, or party supporters towards him, and said: “I get quite a lot of stick online, compared to the other parties, and sometimes we can find ourselves perhaps getting frustrated with that and maybe not conduct ourselves in the way we perhaps should.”

Cllr Thomas was contacted for comment.