01/05/2026
Stand Up to Racism West Wales’ response to Reform UK’s Tenby Observer wraparound advertisement.
Many people were horrified that a far-right racist party could buy a Tenby Observer wraparound advertisement. If you didn’t see it, it was an aggressive black ‘Big Brother’ style square – enough to put anyone off voting Reform UK Ltd! We have all had the unwanted Reform UK campaign materials posted through our letter boxes. Many are asking, “How can Reform pay for this?” In many respects, the answer to that question tells you all you need to know about Reform and why you shouldn’t vote for them. Reform UK Ltd has more millionaire and billionaire donors than any other UK political party. Their biggest donor is Christopher Harborne, a British cryptocurrency speculator living in Thailand under another name who donated 12 million to Reform on top of a personal donation to Nigel Farage of 5 million before he became an MP. Harborne is the largest shareholder of QinetiQ which develops military technology and drones that have been used in Gaza to murder hundreds of children. These deadly drones are developed in MOD Aberporth, Ceredigion. It is blood money that funds all of these leaflets and advertisements. Surely, a good enough reason not to allow the front page of our beloved local paper to be desecrated.
Reform UK are a threat to us all, but especially if you are an immigrant (let’s face it many of us are!), black or brown, a woman, a Muslim, old, sick, disabled, a child pedestrian and a worker. Women will be told to, “Stay at home and look after the children”, as did a Reform candidate, Mark Lawrence, in Pontypridd. Disabled people will be told that their benefits will be slashed. Our wonderful NHS will be privatised through insurance schemes, as advocated by Nigel Farage. Free prescriptions will be abolished. More children will die on our roads as a result of the abolition of the 20mph limit, that has so far saved 100 people from death or severe injury on our roads, whilst also lowering our car insurance premiums. Workers will lose the few protections that they have resulting in lower wages and poorer conditions. The abandoment of net zero carbon will result in an existential threat to our communities and our children. It will push back all the work already done to create renewables and green jobs.
Most importantly, people’s lives will be put at risk. Racist scapegoating has consequences. Do we really want to see a repeat of the racist riots of the Summer of 2024 where Nigel Farage’s insinuation that the killer of the Southport girls was a Muslim, which he wasn’t, led to brown people being dragged out of their cars and beaten, the attempt to set light to hotels with migrant families inside, and the stoning of Mosques?
Disgracefully, a leading Reform supporter, Aaron Banks, recently commented on a Plaid Cymru campaign video featuring a young black man from Cardiff asking, “Welsh lad”. This racist nonsense has consequences for us all.
Reform UK are best known for their racist anti-immigrant hate filled rhetoric. They promise mass deportation of migrants fleeing from war, destitution and persecution. Do we really want to see Trump style ICE agents on our streets arresting and deporting anyone who looks like a migrant, including children? Reform scapegoat migrants to distract us from blaming those who have pushed us into despair from rising food and energy prices, cuts to health and social services, and lower incomes. The irony is that it is Farage’s best friend, Donald Trump, has caused the doubling of the price of oil through his brutal and illegal war on Iran.
Did we learn nothing locally from Penally Camp? Those who took the trouble to meet and understand the asylum seekers who were housed by the home Office in the camp, found that these were men had been through hell and just wanted live in peace and contribute to our communities as thousands of have before them. Remember, it is migrants who have made our NHS. The problem with Penally camp were the racists and fascists who came to sow disorder and hate in our community. Reform UK are the inheritors of that unwanted racism and hate. Thankfully, the anti-racist majority in our community rejected the racists and fascists who came to Penally. We need to find that spirit of hope and justice again and reject Reform UK and stop them ruining our lives. Vote to keep them out!
Patrick Connellan, on behalf of Stand Up to Racism West Wales
