Nigel Farage: Reform could win many Welsh election Senedd seats

Reform won five seats at the UK general election, with Farage himself being elected to Westminster for the first time at the eighth attempt. However, none of those seats were in Wales.

Reform came second in 13 of the 32 Welsh constituencies at the general election, as it secured 16.9% of the vote across Wales – an increase of 11.5% compared to 2019 when it stood as the Brexit Party.

One of the seats where the right-wing party came second in July was Torfaen, where the party gained its first councillors in Wales soon after the election, when three independent members of the local council formed a Reform group.

One of them, Alan Slade, who was first elected as a Labour politician, said he was attracted by Reform’s “common sense” policies.

The party’s general election manifesto, which was launched in Merthyr Tydfil, included promises to freeze “non-essential” immigration, cut taxes for small businesses and scrap the UK’s target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“I think Reform needs a chance to show that it’s a party of action rather than words, so that suits me, because that’s exactly what I like to think I do,” Slade added.