‘Same old faces, same old message!’ Tories take aim at Reform as crunch election battle heats up

The Welsh Conservatives have taken aim at Reform UK for “betraying Welsh voters” ahead of the populist party’s landmark conference in Newport today.

Just yesterday, Nigel Farage vowed that his party will be Labour’s “main challenger” in the May 2026 Welsh Senedd election.

Meanwhile, Lee Anderson has said the workers of South Wales view Reform as a “proper alternative” to a Government which has only ever seen Labour or Labour coalition leadership since devolution in 1997.

And though Reform UK is currently polling in third place in Wales – ahead of the Tories – Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies has ripped into the party, warning that it has already joined Wales’s “tired old establishment”.

Reacting to Farage’s “challenger” claim, Davies said: “The Welsh Conservatives are used to facing off against Wales’s tired old establishment, but we didn’t expect Reform to so quickly become a part of it.

“We heard this all before with Ukip in 2016 – and it’s the same old faces with the same old message, and within a month they had disembowelled themselves with infighting.

“Reform UK have betrayed their voters by opposing my criticism of Labour’s hopes to pay illegal migrants £1,600 a month and by supporting the creation of 36 more politicians [expanding the Senedd to 96 seats] which will cost Welsh taxpayers £120million.

“Their chairman called the vanity project ‘vital’.

MORE AS REFORM BATTLES THE TORIES:

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“Welsh voters want a real alternative to Labour’s relentless focus on the wrong priorities.

“The only party that will truly stand up for Wales is the Welsh Conservatives.”

But Reform disagrees – and as well as the Tories, Lee Anderson has set his sights on every party in Wales, vowing that “nobody’s safe”.

Asked how Reform would beat out Plaid Cymru – who poll in second place in Wales – Anderson told GB News: “Well, we’ve got to pick them off one by one.

“We’ve gone for the Tories. We’ve picked lots of Conservative votes, not just in Wales but all over the country.

“We’ve started eating into the Labour vote. We’ll probably do the same in Scotland as well.

“And yes, we’re going for them as well. Nobody’s safe. They need to be looking over their shoulders at every opportunity.”

“Only Reform can rescue Wales,” Anderson later added on social media.