Last week saw one of the proudest moments of my journalism career. Leaked messages from a WhatsApp group containing several senior members of Reform UK in Wales seemed to suggest that the party’s director of communications called me a bad word in January this year. I won’t say the word, but it’s the bad one beginning with C.

Personally I don’t have any issue with being called that inside a private group. I would have considered it a stain on my professionalism if any political party’s comms chief had given me a glowing review. Mates of mine have actually suggested that it’s perhaps the most accurate thing to come out of Reform UK HQ. However, it is symbolic of behaviour from Reform in Wales that makes me far more concerned about what the party would be like in power, and which should worry voters both here in Cymru and in the wider UK. The first concern has to be its attitude to scrutiny.

The message thread in which Reform treated me with such warmth was discussing a social media post where I’d suggested that the fact the party hasn’t named a Welsh leader was disrespectful to Wales. I had posted: “They are telling the people of Wales: ‘Vote for us, but if you do, you’ll only find out who your first minister will be after we win.’” Former Conservative MP Mark Reckless posted in the chat:“My inclination would be to ignore it.” This has been Reform’s attitude to Wales ever since it put the Senedd in its crosshairs – it offers almost nothing specific to Wales, and having no Welsh leader it therefore avoids........

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