'You see a confident leader and party that knows what to do'

After university in Exeter, he won a place as a graduate trainee with a building society and threw himself into local politics.

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He led Barnet, North London, from 2019 to 2022, having stood for the Tories in the South Wales constituency of Islwyn in 2010 and 2017, but a disillusionment with the Conservatives took root.

"When I was a council leader, the Conservative government at the time was pushing the green agenda on to councils," he says.

"It was implied that if we didn’t accept funding for bus lanes and cycle lanes, for instance, that we would be at the bottom of the list when it came to further infrastructure funding.

"We've had uncontrolled immigration and don’t forget the small boats issue started under the Conservative government. There just seemed to be a complete lack of focus, lack of discipline, and a lack of action to tackle the issues that the people were saying for many years they wanted solved."

N MR Farage, he says, “you see a very confident leader and a confident party that knows what to do”. He said he wants a “Reform government in Cardiff Bay to undo the 27 years of failure and lack of ambition from Labour”.

The polls suggest Wales is ready for change and Mr Thomas aspires to bring major improvements to education and health.

Wales’ children lag behind counterparts across the UK when it comes to maths, reading and science. A damning analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found “lower scores in Wales cannot be explained by higher levels of poverty”, because disadvantaged children in England score “about 30 points higher” than those in Wales.