By all means let’s have grievance politics – but not of the Reform UK kind

Martin Shipton

If, thanks to Reform UK, 2026 is to be the year of multiple grievances, let’s make sure we concentrate on genuine causes for outrage rather than the spurious kind pushed by Nigel Farage.

We’ve seen it for quite a few months already, and we can be sure that it will last until the Senedd election in May: faux grievance politics in top gear, Reform-style.

Like all populist parties of the far right, Reform thrives on stirring up resentment, especially amongst those who consider they’re getting a raw deal.

But the resentment isn’t directed against the mega-wealthy whose greed perpetuates the grossly unequal society we live in. Instead the objects of venom are scapegoats at the bottom who are blamed for all our social ills.

We were given incontrovertible proof of Reform’s modus operandi throughout the Caerphilly by-election campaign. The Welsh Government’s Nation of Sanctuary programme was demonised, as if those benefitting from it were unquestionably rapists and murderers. In fact, 91% of the money was spent resettling refugees from Ukraine who fled their country following the brutal invasion by Putin.

The sickening repetition of these lies, even after the truth was pointed out to Reform, demonstrated how the party has no respect for the truth and is indifferent to the consequences of its toxicity.

And consequences there were: local ethnic minority business people told how racial tension was stoked up, but had been non-existent before Reform arrived. Later we reported how a 14 year-old Ukrainian refugee girl had been verbally abused and then assaulted after a school trip by older girls telling her to go back to Ukraine.

Such behaviour motivated by a naked desire for political gain is despicable and shouldn’t be tolerated. Unfortunately we shall without doubt be subjected to more of it over the next few months. It must be called out every time.

Reform has its social media outriders, who push the party’s grievance-ridden agenda on a daily, indeed hourly, basis. Much of such output is imbued with racism and designed to foster resentment against racial minorities.

Instead of being seen as a life-enhancing and generous gesture, the planting of trees in Uganda is portrayed as an egregious waste of public money. The same applies to an incentive scheme aimed at recruiting more Afro-Caribbean teachers into Welsh schools. Surely that’s a good thing – but for Reform UK it’s a discriminatory attack on white teachers and another cause for resentment.

Old footage

A further source for attacks is old footage from Senedd debates, in some cases going back years and featuring politicians who are no longer Senedd Members.

One features former Plaid Cymru MS Bethan Sayed talking about a situation where a white schoolgirl wore a Muslim head covering to see what reaction she got from the public. The Reform outrider distorted the narrative by suggesting Ms Sayed was advocating that all white schoolgirls should be obliged to wear such head covering.

Nonsense of this kind is put forward as a diversion from the fact that Reform has, as yet, produced no policies about how it would deal in government with the challenges facing the NHS, education and the economy.

I feel a sense of grievance that a political party which is vying to lead the Welsh government has failed to set out even the bare bones of how it will run our public services. I also find it extremely disrespectful that Reform has yet to tell the people of Wales who it will nominate as First Minister should it be in a position to do so. And as we approach the new year – just four months before the Senedd election – not a single Reform candidate has been announced. I have no doubt that this is partly motivated by a desire to hinder journalists from discovering anything to the discredit of those whose names are eventually put forward.

Wales has many legitimate grievances of far greater importance than the mean-spirited offerings submitted so far by Reform.

There is no doubt that our nation has been ill-served by successive Westminster governments in terms of funding. Where does Reform stand on the issue of HS2, an England-only rail project that has absurdly been categorised as an England and Wales scheme, thus robbing Wales of billions of pounds in Barnett consequential funding?

I’ve heard nothing from Nigel Farage or any other Reform figure about remedying this injustice. The same applies to Crown Estate funding. Will Reform commit to devolving this anachronistic entity to Wales if it wins power at Westminster at the next general election? I think we know the answer.

Aggrieved

I am genuinely aggrieved that a Putin-admiring charlatan like Farage could easily become the next Prime Minister of the UK because of the vagaries of the unfair First Past The Post electoral system that we continue to use in Westminster elections.

A Farage-led government would be to the right of the Conservatives and would seek to turn the UK into a mini-version of Trump’s America, with all the horrible consequences we can see playing out across the Atlantic. It would introduce mass deportations and as a result we would see an ICE-type force abducting people from the street and disappearing them.

We would see a crackdown on freedom of expression of the kind Trump is introducing, with media organisations cowed into submission by threats and takeovers. We would see attacks on workers’ employment rights, pay and conditions, with hard-won advances rolled back to benefit rapacious employers.

The public sector would be subjected to a huge job cuts programme, with regulatory legislation aimed at protecting consumers, public health and the environment swept away.

With the UK out of the EU, which affords considerable protections to its member states, Farage has achieved the first part of his plan to turn the UK into a tax haven for billionaires. The second part of the plan is to lift the restraints that exist on buccaneering capitalism, with workers exploited all the more.

Any fanciful belief that Farage is “the workers’ friend” who will tackle inequality and improve the prosperity of ordinary people will be blown away very quickly if Reform wins the next general election.

Why otherwise would the party be getting huge donations from business people who regard organised labour with disdain?

We know from polling data that the less well educated people are, the more likely they are to vote for Reform. This isn’t a gratuitous insult – it happens to be the truth. Equally, we can be pretty sure that those who vote for Reform will be disadvantaged most if the party were to come to power. We must do whatever we can to get this message across to people who may initially find it a bitter pill to swallow.

I have plenty of other grievances relating to the state of the world, not least concerning the way Israel on multiple fronts is being allowed to get away with mass murder. Farage and his party are on the opposing side in this context too.

So yes. May 2026 will be the year of multiple grievances – but legitimate ones.

Let’s make sure we elect a Welsh government that stands up for Wales and at least tries to put wrongs right.