Dan who? Reform UK installs surprise leader in Wales

There’s no question that a political earthquake is coming to Wales at the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) elections in less than a hundred days' time. 

After a century of political hegemony, the Welsh have fallen out of love with Labour, while the Welsh Conservatives are now fighting an existential battle for their very survival. 

In by-election after by-election, Labour and the Conservatives have suffered heavy losses, with Plaid Cymru and Reform UK typically sweeping to victory. And for months now, polling shows Plaid Cymru and Reform are the clear frontrunners.

Reform has faced tough questions not least about their policies for Wales as well as who is their candidate to be Wales’ First Minister?

While policy questions continue to go largely unanswered, the question of leadership in Wales has finally been addressed.

Reform leadership woes

Reform’s previous leader in Wales, Nathan Gill pleaded guilty to taking bribes to give pro-Russian speeches while a Member of the European Parliament, and has been sentenced to more than ten years in prison.  

It was, therefore, no surprise that Nigel Farage would wait as long as possible before announcing a replacement. 

But in a move that managed to surprise most, Mr Farage anointed a relative unknown figure in the Welsh political scene as the new leader of Reform in Wales. 

Dan Thomas, Reform’s new leader in Wales, was until a few months ago living in London, having left Wales as a teenager. As recently as June 2025, Mr Thomas was a Tory councillor in the London Borough of Barnet, where he rose to become Council leader.  

Why now?

Hiraeth is a concept in Welsh that has no direct translation in English, which describes a type of nostalgic longing and homesickness for Wales that afflicts Welsh people living abroad. We have a further saying in Welsh: “teg yw edrych tuag adref” or “it’s good to look homewards”. 

Mr Thomas certainly sounded like a man suffering from hiraeth and a need to look homewards when he declared at his unveiling: “After 27 years, I’m back home raising two young boys in the Valleys so they can enjoy the same beautiful Welsh countryside that I played in as a child. I’ve come back to where I belong.”

Or did he?

Mr Thomas’ unveiling was barely over before the controversies surrounding him began. Veteran journalist Martin Shipton fired the first shot when he published an article entitled: ‘The new leader of Reform UK Wales lives in Bath, not Wales’. 

Mr Thomas and Reform have denied this, while notably failing to answer many of the questions asked of them about Mr Thomas’ living arrangements. Reform instead questioned the credibility of Mr Shipton - a man who won Welsh Journalist of the Year and Welsh Political Journalist of the Year awards in 2024.

Mr Thomas would, however, confirm that he does own the house in Bath, as part of his “property portfolio”, demonstrating his man-of-the-people credentials.

But where Mr Thomas lives is not just a question of integrity. In 2026, the Senedd election will feature a new law, which means that all candidates must have their primary residence in Wales. 

New Tory defections

Dan Thomas was not the only big announcement made by Mr Farage in Newport. He also announced the defection of Conservative Member of the Senedd, James Evans, to Reform, becoming the second formerly Conservative MS to do so. Thus, the relevant question may not be what next for Reform, but who next.

With these defections, and the belated new leader announcement, the upshot is that Mr Thomas and Reform now have just three months to convince the Welsh public that Reform should be put in charge of their NHS, children’s education, housing policy, social care, transport and the many other areas in which the Senedd is able to exercise its primary law making powers.

It could be that Wales is led by a person who has spent most, and possibly all, of his adult life not living in Wales, governing on a policy platform that has little detail. Unlikely though that sounds, such are the times we’re living in.