Reform UK politician triggers walkout in Welsh parliament

A Reform UK member walked out of the Welsh Senedd — Wales's parliament in Cardiff — after making comments about Indian nurses and Welsh students that offended other politicians.

Joe Martin MS (the 'MS' means he's a Senedd member) gave a speech on Wednesday that prompted Labour, Plaid Cymru and Green members to stand up and leave the chamber. Walkouts are rare in the 60-member chamber and show formal disapproval. Members who stayed accused him of racism, according to BBC News.

What exactly did Martin say? He suggested that Indian nurses were taking jobs from Welsh workers in the NHS. He also made remarks described as mocking comments about whether Welsh students could read. Neither claim came with evidence in reports of the speech.

Reform UK later said the speech had been about Sudanese asylum seekers, not Indian nurses. The party tried to distance itself from how the speech was being described in the media. But multiple news reports had separately confirmed Martin did mention Indian nurses by name. The gap between what Reform said happened and what actually happened is notable.

The Senedd context matters here. Reform entered the Welsh parliament for the first time at the 2026 elections as part of a wider push to gain seats in devolved legislatures — the parliaments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that handle some of their own laws. The party's members are still learning how to behave on this floor.

Worth noting: health and education in Wales are 'devolved matters'. This means the Welsh Senedd decides policy on these areas, not the UK Parliament in Westminster. Martin's choice to target NHS nursing and student reading levels made his speech particularly pointed at the Senedd itself, not at UK-wide politics.

The episode leaves Reform facing a choice. The party wants to be seen as serious and credible in these devolved institutions, but it also built its brand on being disruptive and anti-establishment. A speech that provokes politicians to walk out within weeks of entering the Senedd is not a quiet beginning. How Reform's national leadership responds will signal which direction the party wants to go.

Any formal complaint about Martin's conduct would go through the Senedd's own procedures, not Westminster's. That keeps the focus firmly on the Welsh parliament rather than on UK-wide politics.