There is a strong feeling the country is in decline... now people want change

After focusing on fighting the Tories, Nigel Farage now has Sir Keir Starmer in his sights. Former Welsh Secretary David Jones has been brought in to advise Reform UK in Wales, where he believes the time is ripe to overturn generations of Labour dominance

- By David Williamson

REVOLUTION is taking place before our eyes, according to a former Tory Cabinet minister now working for a breakthrough for Reform UK.

David Jones served as Brexit minister and Welsh Secretary but was appalled by the actions of his own government in the dying days of Conservative rule.

Reform will face one of its greatest electoral tests yet next May, when it will seek to turn today's support in the polls into success in the Welsh Parliament elections.

Labour has emerged as the biggest party in every election for more than a century. Ending this winning streak would turbocharge Reform's hopes of taking power in the next UK election, which must be held before the end of the decade.

And Mr Jones is confident Nigel Farage can win over the Welsh electorate and stop disenchanted voters switching to Plaid Cymru.

"I went with Nigel Farage to the Royal Welsh Show and I was astounded at the reception he got," he says. "It was just miraculous, really."

Welsh voters, he argues, know "Plaid Cymru is essentially a Left-wing socialist party wearing green clothes" and he predicts a "complete collapse of the Conservative vote".

He understands how once-diehard Conservatives are losing faith in Kemi Badenoch's party because he has been on this journey himself.

Mr Jones briefly served in the Senedd before winning the North Wales seat of Clwyd West in 2005. He was a Welsh Secretary for David Cameron and a Brexit minister for Theresa May.

But three key disappointments with the Conservatives pushed him out of the party.

He regards Rishi Sunak's Windsor Framework deal with the EU - designed to avoid the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as "absolutely devastating". "We've arrived at a situation where Northern Ireland is semidetached from the rest of the UK," he says.

"It has had the most awful effect upon the integrity of the UK."