Reform UK makes dramatic first impression in Senedd opposition role

T ears, walkouts, own-goal votes: the Welsh parliament has only been sitting for a few weeks, but Reform UK has already made a dramatic first impression in its new role as the official Senedd opposition. Plaid Cymru won May’s historic Welsh elections, ending 100 years of Labour dominance and blocking the momentum of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which came second. He had been aiming for it to become Wales’s biggest party but it still performed better than any Welsh Conservative result on record, and increased its vote share from 1% in 2021 to 29% in 2026. With more than a third of the seats in the newly expanded chamber, the Senedd is now the biggest political platform Reform has ever had. Some of its new MSs have wasted no time making a mark. “It is unsurprising that new voices challenging longstanding consensus are drawing criticism from the establishment,” said Dan Thomas, the Reform UK Wales leader. Joe Martins, a Reform MS for Caerdydd Penarth, elicited gasps from many of his political rivals and the public viewing gallery during first minister’s questions last week by differentiating between Ukrainian and Sudanese refugees, alleging only the latter commit violent crimes, and asking what Rhun ap Iorwerth would do to avoid “the next inevitable attack”. Labour MS Shav Taj, next on the list of speakers, struggled to hold back tears as she responded by talking about her own parents’ immigration experience. …