Dan Thomas leads Reform UK in Wales. On 8 July 2026, he gave an interview to the BBC defending the party against a criticism that matters to Reform's identity: that it has become the kind of establishment politics it was set up to fight BBC. Reform is now preparing to fight the Welsh Parliament election as a serious contender — a much bigger role than it has played before.

The challenge is real. In May, a news organisation called DeSmog reported that two out of every three people in Reform's top Welsh team are former Conservative politicians DeSmog. Dan Thomas fits that pattern: he used to be a Conservative councillor in London. Nigel Farage, Reform's national leader, appointed him to lead the Welsh party in February 2026 BBC.

For a party that says it wants to shake up politics as usual, having an ex-Conservative team is an awkward fit. Opponents will use it as ammunition in the election campaign.

Farage has said the party's Welsh direction comes from Thomas and the Welsh team, not from him in London BBC. But that story got complicated in February, when Farage appeared alongside Thomas to announce Reform's main Welsh policies. One key pledge was scrapping a 20mph speed limit rule Channel 4 News. When the party leader stands next to someone to launch policies, it raises the question: is Thomas genuinely making these decisions, or is Farage the real boss?

Reform's election promise document, published on its website, centres on cutting taxes Reform UK. It also describes the election as a referendum on the Prime Minister BBC. That language is worth noting, because the Welsh election is technically about choosing who runs the Welsh Government, not Westminster. A financial think tank called the Institute for Fiscal Studies has already done the maths on some Reform pledges, saying one could cost £371 million BBC. As the election gets closer, other parties will ask harder questions about whether Reform can afford its promises.

Thomas has faced personal threats. In February, he said police were investigating online abuse aimed at him and his family BBC. The incident shows how tense Welsh politics has become.

On the same day as Thomas's BBC interview, Farage announced he will trigger a by-election in his English seat and run again BBC. The two stories are not connected, but they happen at the same time. Farage is defending Reform's Welsh independence from London control while also committing to his English seat. That raises an obvious question: where is power actually concentrated in Reform?

Reform was built on the idea of being different from the political establishment. But when most of your top people used to work for the Conservatives, that story becomes hard to sell. How Welsh voters respond to this contradiction — whether they see it as a flaw or accept it — could decide how Reform's election campaign goes.