James Davies has joined Reform (Image: Reform)
Nigel Farage has unveiled one more Tory defector, doubling the occasion’s illustration within the Welsh Senedd.
Speaking in South Wales, Mr Farage confirmed that James Evans, MS, has defected to the occasion, after being kicked out of the Tories for speaking to the rebel right-wing occasion.
Two weeks in the past, the Tories mentioned that they had eliminated the whip due to him “continuing to engage with Reform representatives about the possibility of defecting to the party”.
At the time, Mr Evans said he would sit as an Independent Member of the Senedd while he considered his political future.
However, just a fortnight later, he’s made the jump to Reform, claiming his warnings that Wales is broken have been ignored by all parties, including the Tories.
Taking to the stage, Mr Evans said: “Let me be straight with you – Wales has had 26 years of Cardiff Bay spin: Britain is damaged, and Wales is damaged additionally.
“Not under pressure, not challenged, it is fundamentally broken. And the real failure in Welsh politics is not just the bad outcomes for its people, it’s the refusal by the people in power to admit what everybody else can see.
“I did admit it, I mentioned it overtly, and I challenged it contained in the Senedd and the Conservative Party. I mentioned that Wales was damaged. I mentioned that Britain was damaged. And for that honesty, I used to be kicked out.”
He claimed he was being asked to defend a vision for Wales “that was not a very good one”, particularly the Tories’ refusal to rule out a post-election deal with Plaid Cymru, the left-wing pro-independence party.
The defection means Reform has doubled its representation in the Senedd, after Laura Anne Jones also defected from the Tories last summer.
Mr Farage is eyeing big wins in Scotland, which he argues may finish off Keir Starmer for good.
Speaking at the start of the rally, the Reform chief said the ongoing Mandelson scandal “is all of the extra outstanding, as a result of South Wales actually is the birthplace of the Labour Party”.
“From Keir Hardy in Merthyr Tydvill, the Nye Bevans, the Michael Foots, the Neil Kinnocks, lots of the nice names of the Labour Party have been South Walians. And most of those constituencies have been taken as a right just about since 1918.
“But something fundamental has changed, and I think for Labour it will get even worse. That gives us incredible opportunities.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2167107/nigel-farage-james-davies-wales