What Nigel Farage said when I challenged him about Wales
I went to Reform's Welsh conference. We need to radically rethink how we approach their supporters
Hello,
When you walk into the conference hall at the Celtic Manor Resort you are greeted by two enormous flags. One a Union Jack and the other the flag of Wales. They flank the stage where about 500 people sit under grand chandeliers
The people are on their feet, loud music is pumping and, amid waves of adulation you would think reserved only for cult leaders, Nigel Farage takes to the stage. There he delivers a speech without notes or autocue.
According to him, he and his party are the answer to Wales’ problems. They are uniquely placed to get on top of the issues in the Welsh NHS. The causes of issues oft repeated, were apparently clear - elites and immigrants.
On Friday I spent the day at the Reform party’s Welsh conference in the Celtic Manor in Newport. It was, frankly, one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I interviewed Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and dozens of party members. There is a real chance that Reform will make up a significant proportion of the Welsh Parliament after the 2026 election and understanding what is driving that support is absolutely essential.
I have therefore put together a bumper newsletter looking at the rise of Reform in Wales. I do this newsletter on my own. This is what I do for a living. If you find value in this and can afford it, I would be so grateful if you moved to a paid subscription.
Before we get into it, a few words from our (wonderful) sponsor:
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Reform are coming for Wales
Just to give you the context for this conference, in the summer general election, Reform came second in 13 of Wales’ 32 seats.
In 2026 there is a Senedd election where Reform could make huge gains because of the voting system. They poll about 20% across Wales and 25% in the Valleys.
If they make gains they will get a huge influx of taxpayer funded staff and money that they can use as a springboard for targeting the next General Election.
This is a matter of hope - why are people in Wales voting Reform?
I will get to the interviews with Farage and Anderson in a bit but first I want to really try and breakdown why Reform are striking such a chord with people in Wales.
Far too often people default to the “they are just racist” argument. Sure, there are of course people who gravitate towards Reform because they feel they chime with their own prejudices. But by far the most common rationales I heard from regular Welsh citizens at the conference were:
Hope (or a lack thereof)
The NHS
I am going to break each of these down in turn because I think there is something really important and legitimate in these arguments.
Hope
During the lunch break at the conference I speak to Pam and her daughter. Pam is from Boughrood in Powys and her daughter is from Pontypridd. She has made her own Nigel Farage necklace and rosette.
When you speak to Pam, she cites “loneliness” as the main reason that she supports Reform. Now that might seem like a strange rationale for supporting a party, after all, what can a politician really do to tackle loneliness? But dig a little deeper and it is really about community.
There are perfectly legitimate reasons for people, especially in rural Wales, to feel that their community has been neglected. Their travel links are woeful, their internet is slow, young people have to leave to find work, and their highstreets are on their knees.
In my opinion, one of the biggest missteps of the new Labour Government under Keir Starmer was to take office and strike such a depressing tone. Yes, you can’t simply pretend that there isn't a huge challenge in public finances but they have totally failed to paint a positive vision for the future. After the Tories and austerity, people were crying out to believe again, but the mood music is very much the opposite.
This has left a vacuum that Reform is filling. Sure their policies seemingly have as much detail on policy as graffiti on a toilet stall, but when you are scared for the future, it is natural to be drawn to the people who say the answer is simple and the future is bright.
One of the gentlemen I spoke to from North Wales expressed this directly:
This is why labelling every Reform voter a racist or bigot is so counterproductive. In the main, regular Reform voters are looking for what we are all looking for, reasons to believe in the future and hope.
If you want to win those people back away from the Farage’s of this world you have to address their concerns. Calling them names doesn’t convince, it alienates.
The NHS
It is hard to overstate how much this issue came up. While politicians and higher-ups in the party talked more about immigration, the average member I spoke to wanted to talk more about the health service.
Like the demise of local town centres, this is a perfectly legitimate grievance to hold. In Wales our NHS is in a terrible state. Waiting lists are sky high and are only going up. You can see a breakdown of this issue in previous newsletters.
When you ask people how they would want to fix it, their only answer is “cut out waste”. Have a listen to this couple who came over from Bridgend:
There are few things to take from this:
Though they think tackling the challenges in the health services are vital, there is very little detail when it comes to practicality (we will expand on that in a minute).
Their concerns also stem from a lack of hope - “worried for my grandchildren”.
They clearly don’t know who the First Minister of Wales is. Bearing in mind that these people are politically engaged enough to go to a party conference, it is pretty illuminating that they don’t know who the highest ranking politician in their country is.
They want people to “say what I want to hear”. Almost without exception every Reform supporter I spoke to felt like they were not listened to. This is a major problem for the mainstream parties.
Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and whether Reform want to abolish the Senedd
One of my biggest frustrations with how Reform is often covered is that they are not held to the same standard as other political parties. If Eluned Morgan was to say she was going to “save the NHS” all journalists would (rightly) be pressing for details. If she couldn’t supply them we would label her plans as “empty”.
But when Nigel Farage says he will “improve the NHS, there is never a drive for details. So when I spoke to him and Lee Anderson, I tried to push them on these points.
In the case of Nigel Farage this showed that he had no idea about the issues and the Betsi Cadwaldr health board in North Wales while refusing totally to give any detail whatsoever on how he would actually improve the Welsh NHS.
In Lee Anderson’s case he just got very annoyed with me. Let’s start with his full interview:
Before we break down what this means, let’s take a look at the Nigel Farage interview:
In this “young man’s” humble opinion there were a few illuminating parts of these interviews:
Reform’s leaders take no real interest in Welsh specific issues. This is not a Welsh party. The senior leadership almost revel in their disinterest in Wales. They spent most of the conference trying to get members to set up local branches and run as candidates because they have no real connection to Cymru. This is why Labour’s decision to have closed lists in Senedd elections was so suicidal. They wilfully removed the voter's connection to the local party when they come to cast their ballot.
Devolution. The current policy of Reform is not to campaign to abolish the Senedd (they worry this will alienate some voters). But this does not mean that they have any love for Wales having any control over their own affairs. I spoke to three separate senior members of the party who followed the Lee Anderson line that devolution is going to be useful for them because it will give them profile, staff and money to target gains in a UK election. Remember when there were lots of UKIP MEPs in the European Parliament doing nothing except taking their salaries while undermining the very institution in which they sat? Yep…
How they react to scrutiny. Particularly in the case of Lee Anderson there was a real aversion to detailed or probing questions. The response was frustration and condescension. I was in the media room when Farage did his TV interviews and it was a joke. Lots of time was given to GB News who didn’t ask a single question that challenged him in any way whereas Welsh publications in particular were given just three minutes (with some not given any time at all). These are not people who see themselves as public servants who accept reasonable scrutiny.
There is no plan. You cannot get any detail on any policy. These people are not serious about governing, they are serious about winning power. They are not putting forward a credible plan because they don’t have to. By any measure the governing parties in Wales are failing, all Reform feel they need to do is tell a desperate population that they are the answer.
The language inside the conference hall was terrifying. “We are a people’s army and the ballot box is our battlefield”, “We are being silently invaded, we have to fight back”.
Labour don’t realise how much trouble they are in. They need to make the next 18 months count. They have to provide answers, vision and hope. I hope for the sake of the people of Wales they do.
Thanks for reading and all your support
Will
The closed list is a big mistake. It helps grifters in Reform who've done nothing but a well known and respected candidate (from whichever party) won't be able to get those extra vital votes. It also alienates voters. Plaid wanted STV, Labour opposed. Is there still time to change that?
One of the things that might make a difference is challenging the right-wing bias in mass media. GBNews, TalkTV & most of the big national newspapers are owned by very rich individuals who have vested interests to protect.
We need media that ask parties like Reform the hard questions, and point out when they have no answers.
Reform didn't have a manifesto at the last election, and that was entirely deliberate. They're not a democratic party, they're a limited company owned by some of the same very rich individuals who own the media.
There's a pattern, and it's a nasty one.
How do we persuade the Labour party (both in Wales & in the national party) to start unpicking the systems than enable that plan? Starting by removing the senior people in the BBC that were put in place by the previous government to silence honest debate, perhaps?