Nigel Farage has unveiled the new leader for Reform UK in Wales as former London council leader Dan Thomas.
The Welsh-born former councillor addressed the crowd at an event led by Mr Farage during a press conference ahead of the Senedd elections.
Mr Thomas, who grew up in Wales, was the Conservative leader of Barnet Council from 2019 to 2022 and joined Reform UK last year.
In December, he quit as a councillor for Finchley Church End after returning to Wales with his family.
He told a party event in Newport: “I was born and raised in the Welsh Valleys, where my family lived for generations. My granddad was a miner, as was his dad before him.”
Mr Thomas said he had “fond memories” of growing up in Wales and did not want to leave when he turned 18.
“But for many Welshmen and women, good opportunities in Wales are few and far between.
“The well paying jobs and the high flying career paths are simply not there. So I left to build a successful career in financial services in London while serving my new community as a councillor and council leader.
The Welsh-born new leader previously served as the former London council leader
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PA
“After 27 years, I’m back home raising two young boys in the Valleys so they can enjoy the same beautiful Welsh countryside that I played in as a child. I’ve come back to where I belong.”
Reacting to the announcement, a Welsh Labour spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage says there are no Tories in Wales – that’s because they’ve all jumped ship to Reform UK to save their own skins, with James Evans MS being the latest.
“And now we’ve got a man who was a London councillor until two months ago telling Wales what it needs.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who is named as Reform’s leader in Wales. They will just be Nigel Farage’s puppet, doing his bidding from Westminster and silencing the voices of the people of Wales.
James Evans has been revealed as Reform’s latest defector | YOUTUBE/REFORM UK
“You can’t trust their leader. You can’t trust their words. Reform UK’s leader in Wales is another former Tory. Reform Wales: led by Tories.”
Earlier at the press conference, Mr Farage announced Reform UK’s latest defector as former Tory politician James Evans ahead of the Senedd elections in May.
Mr Evans said Britain is “broken and Wales is broken too” as he took to the stage at the Reform press conference in Wales.
He said: “Britain is broken and Wales is broken also. Not under pressure, not challenged, it is fundamentally broken.
“And the real failure in Welsh politics is not just the bad outcomes for its people, it is the refusal by the people in power to admit what everybody else can see.
“I did admit it, I challenged it openly and I challenged it inside the Seneed and the Conservative party. I said that Wales was broken, I said that Britain was broken and for that honesty and for the people of Wales, I was kicked out.”
Mr Evans also acknowledged that he had been critical of Reform in the past and had done so publicly but said “serious people, not career politicians, reassess when the reality refuses to go away”.
“I looked again, I listened, I read the detail,” Mr Evans said.
He added that Plaid Cymru and the Green Party would lead Wales on a “slow march” to the break-up of the United Kingdom.
“I’m proudly Welsh but I’m proudly British,” he added. “These things are not in conflict and we are stronger together as one United Kingdom.”