Farage urges people in Wales to vote Reform... in London

As Wales goes to the polls today in the most consequential election in the Senedd’s history, Reform has taken out a three-page ad in an influential local newspaper – urging those in Mid Wales to vote for the party in London.

Nigel Farage’s party placed a huge advert in the Powys County Times, which covers a large chunk of central Wales, attacking Keir Starmer and the English capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan and encouraging its readers to “vote Reform UK in the London elections on 7th May”.

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In a signed letter by Farage, the leader writes that: “London needs Reform. It is one of the world’s great capitals. Yet these days Sadiq Khan’s London often feels lawless and unrecognisable to Londoners who can no longer afford to live in their own city.

“If London and Britain are to move forward, it will only happen if people come together behind one movement that can actually deliver change. That movement is Reform UK.”

The letter vows that, if elected, Reform would “stop illegal immigration” and remove VAT on domestic energy bills – neither of which the Welsh Government has any power to do, and neither do the London councils for which Farage’s missive was presumably intended for.

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“Now we are standing candidates for elections all over London on 7th May,” Farage goes on to tell his Mid Wales readers. “We cannot do this without you. And London will only get the change it needs if you vote Reform UK on 7th May.”

In a total of 478 words, Farage mentions the words ‘London’ or ‘Londoners’ no fewer than seven times. The word ‘Wales’ is not mentioned once. The third page of the ad is dominated by a large picture of Farage with the words ‘Vote Reform UK in London on May 7th’. The party’s leader in Wales Dan Thomas – ironically the Conservative leader of a North London council until relatively recently – does not feature.

How many Powys County Times readers will be voting Reform in London today? Given that they’d have to sell up, find somewhere to live in the English capital and register themselves to vote with their new local authority all by 10pm, probably not too many.