Reform will shake up the status quo in Wales, vows Farage

NIGEL Farage has pledged to shake up the status quo in Wales if Reform wins next year’s Senedd election.

- ELEANOR STOREY and ROSIE SHEAD

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage with by-election candidate Llyr Powell at the Tommy Cooper statue in Caerphilly last week

The Reform UK leader said it is too early to make any specific policy commitments, but he promised “fresh thinking’.

Labour has led Wales since the Welsh Parliament was first established in 1999, but Reform UK and Plaid Cymru have topped recent polling for the election next May.

Yesterday, the leader of Plaid Cymru refused to say whether he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Reform UK “out” of the Senedd.

Speaking to BBC Politics Wales during a campaign visit to Caerphilly on Friday, in an interview which aired yesterday, Mr Farage said he has a “full-time team” working on policies and he has been meeting with former Conservative Welsh Secretary David Jones, who has now joined Reform.

“We're going to bring in fresh thinking,’ he said. “We want to use every devolved power we possibly can to make the lives of small businesses and other bigger businesses easier in Wales.