Reform's latest recruit says party are ready to cause a stir

SWANSEA'S first ever Reform UK councillor said she thinks others might follow and that she didn’t feel she had broken the trust of those who voted for her as a Welsh Conservative three years ago.

- RICHARD YOULE

Cllr Francesca O’Brien described her defection as “a gamble” but said she had never seen a political party break through to voters in the way she claims Reform UK has.

And although the mother-of-two said she lived and breathed being a councillor in Mumbles, she said “speaking off the top of my head” she would be keen to stand at next year's Senedd elections if the opportunity arose.

Critics of Reform UK say the party’s policies ~ or set of reforms as it calls them - don’t stand up to scrutiny financially. Welsh Labour's outgoing minister for delivery and Swansea West MS, Julie James, said she thought a Reform UK Government in Wales would be a “disaster” in an interview over the weekend.

Others question if its proposed freeze on “nonessential immigration" would include or exclude social care workers, whose work underpins the NHS.

Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service if her decision to switch was more about disillusionment with the Welsh Conservatives or enthusiasm about Reform UK, Cllr O'Brien said it was more of the latter.

“For me it’s very much a gamble,’ she said. “Reform are very good at engaging with people across all ages, particularly the younger generation and I think it’s really important to get younger people into politics.

“I've never seen a party that engages like this across generations and wherever you sit demographically. I want to be part of that, get involved and help fine-tune some of the policies”

Cllr O’Brien was first elected as a Swansea councillor in 2022 and is also a Mumbles community councillor.